Board of Pardons & Paroles v. Bridges
Board of Pardons & Paroles v. Bridges
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal by the State Board of Pardons & Paroles from an order of the Superior Court of Lamar County granting habeas corpus relief to inmate James C. Bridges, Jr. We affirm issuance of the writ.
In December 1994, and March 1995, Bridges was convicted of felony and misdemeanor charges in Pike and Lamar counties and was sentenced to serve terms amounting to ten years. The Board of Pardons & Paroles granted Bridges parole on April 1, 1996. On June 20, 1996, the Board revoked parole based on its findings that Bridges failed to carry out instructions from his parole officer or other employees of the Board regarding reporting and changing residence, and that Bridges committed terroristic threats in Upson County.
In July of that year, Bridges filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in the Superior Court of Butts County, challenging the findings that he had violated his parole. Following a hearing, the Butts County court granted the writ and ordered Bridges’ release from custody on October 3, 1996. The court found that Bridges had substantially complied with the directions of his parole officer, and that there was no evidence of any terroristic threats.
However, the day after the Butts County court ordered Bridges’ release another parole violation warrant issued against Bridges, and on October 11, 1996, Bridges was notified that he was again being charged with violating conditions of his parole by failing to carry out instructions from his parole officer or other employees of the Board regarding reporting and changing residence. Bridges was held in Lamar County based on the preliminary finding of probable cause to believe that Bridges had failed to report.
The Board argues that the Lamar County court erred in finding that the Board abused its discretion in seeking to revoke Bridges’ parole a second time because the court’s finding that the second revocation involved the same charge and underlying facts as the first assumes that the Board would not have presented any additional evidence in the second proceeding. By speculating that the Board would produce the same evidence, the habeas court estopped the Board from going forward at all. Further, although the court never expressly used the term “double jeopardy,” such a rationale is inherent in its findings and is legal error because the protections of double jeopardy have not been extended to parole revocation proceedings.
The Board’s arguments are unavailing. It is undisputed that the alleged incident of failing to report underlying the second parole revocation proceeding is the same event named as a basis of the original revocation, which was found to be unlawful. What is more, the transcript of the habeas hearing in Lamar County belies the Board’s claim that it was mere speculation that it would present the same evidence as before. At the habeas hearing, counsel for the Board agreed that the facts to sustain the renewed allegation of parole violation would not differ from what had been presented to the Butts County habeas court.
The Board too fails in its contention that the current ruling was implicitly premised on misplaced notions of double jeopardy. The court stated at the habeas hearing that it was not concerned with double jeopardy. Rather, the court’s ruling is sustained under the doctrine of res judicata.
Judgment affirmed.
On November 4, 1996, a grand jury for the Griffin Judicial Circuit returned a no bill on the terroristic threats charges.
An appeal from the habeas court’s judgment was filed in this Court but was later withdrawn on November 27,1996. Turpin v. Bridges (Case No. S97A0260).
The hearing officer found that there was no probable cause to believe that Bridges had
Bridges’ habeas petition in Lamar County affirmatively pled that the parole revocation issues had already been determined by the Butts County habeas court.
In Broughton, the grant of a writ of habeas corpus was not given res judicata effect in an extradition proceeding as the writ had issued because of technical defects.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- BOARD OF PARDONS & PAROLES v. BRIDGES
- Status
- Published