James Spotted Bear v. Cecil C. McCall Chairman, United States Parole Commission, and United States Parole Commission

The issue before us is whether the granting of a writ of habeas corpus, which quashed an unexecuted parole violation warrant because of a failure to provide a prompt parole revocation hearing, despite the fact that the petitioner was then in custody of state officials serving a sentence of life imprisonment for murder, bars the issuance of a second parole violation warrant following the decision of the Supreme Court in Moody v. Daggett, 429 U.S. 78 , 97 S.Ct. 274 , 50 L.Ed.2d 236 (1976), when a parole revocation hearing has never been held and the petitioner remains in the custody of state officials. We hold that the quashing of the original parole violation warrant under the circumstances of this case does not bar the issuance of a second parole violation warrant. We, therefore, affirm the denial of the writ of habeas corpus by the district court. Our jurisdiction rests on 28 U.S.C. § 2253 (1976).

I.

FACTS

The facts surrounding the granting of the first writ of habeas corpus are as follows. In 1951 James Spotted Bear was convicted in federal court of murder on an Indian Reservation and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was granted parole on January 10,1967. Shortly…