In Johnson v. Gill, --- F.3d ---, No. 15-16400 (9th Cir. 2018), a divided panel affirmed the district court’s denial of a 28 U.S.C. § 2241 habeas corpus petition
challenging the Bureau of Prisons’ determination of when the petitioner's federal sentence commenced.
While serving his state sentence, the petitioner was twice erroneously turned over to federal authorities. The state credited the time the petitioner spent in federal custody against his state sentence. Once his state sentence was finally complete, the USMS took him into federal custody.
The BOP concluded the petitioner's federal sentence commenced, only after the USMS took him into custody the final time.
The majority of the panel agreed. Here are the key quotes.
under § 3585(a), “[a] sentence to a term of imprisonment commences on the date” that the federal government has primary jurisdiction over a defendant who is “received in custody awaiting transportation to” the official detention facility.
It is well established that if a sovereign takes a defendant into its custody before another sovereign has done so, then the arresting sovereign establishes its primary jurisdiction and may give effect to its sentence before other sovereigns may do so.
A sovereign’s priority terminates when the sentence expires, charges are dismissed, or the prisoner is allowed to go free.
The more difficult situation arises when one sovereign transfers a defendant to another sovereign. Such a case requires an exercise of comity between the sovereigns, and turns on whether the state with primary jurisdiction intended to surrender its priority upon transfer or merely transferred temporary control of the defendant to the federal government.
Because a state’s transfer of temporary control of the defendant “extends no further than it is intended to extend,” and a state that mistakenly transferred a prisoner to the federal government lacked the intent to surrender primary jurisdiction, such a mistaken transfer does not constitute a relinquishment of primary jurisdiction. If the state retains primary jurisdiction, the federal sentence does not commence pursuant to § 3585. Therefore, a prisoner’s federal sentence does not commence when the state mistakenly transfers a prisoner to the federal government.
Although I personally think the dissent had the better argument, this is the law for now.
