Robert Haden King, Jr. v. Neil Brown, Superintendent, Clallam Bay Corrections Center

8 F.3d 1403 Robert Haden KING, Jr., Petitioner-Appellant, v. Neil BROWN, Superintendent, Clallam Bay Corrections Center, Respondent-Appellee. No. 92-35471. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted May 3, 1993. Decided Nov. 3, 1993. Phillip M. Margolin, Margolin & Margolin, Portland, OR, for petitioner-appellant. Robert M. Atkinson, and Robert B. Rocklin, Asst. Attys. Gen., Salem, OR, for respondent-appellee. Michael E. Rose, American Civil Liberties Union, Portland, OR, for amicus. Before: PREGERSON, KLEINFELD, Circuit Judges, and LEGGE, District Judge. * Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, Helen J. Frye, District Judge, Presiding. KLEINFELD, Circuit Judge: 1 King was convicted in Oregon state court of "aggravated murder" and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of thirty years to serve. The main issue on appeal is whether the State of Oregon was bound to a ten year minimum on a plea to ordinary murder because of a plea bargain it made with King. King also claims that his prosecution violated the Interstate Agreement on Detainers because the State of Oregon secured his release from the State of Washington…

King was convicted in Oregon state court of “aggravated murder” and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of thirty years to serve. The main issue on appeal is whether the State of Oregon was bound to a ten year minimum on a plea to ordinary murder because of a plea bargain it made with King. King also claims that his prosecution violated the Interstate Agreement on Detainers because the State of Oregon secured his release from the State of Washington with an invalid indictment. The district court dismissed King’s petition for habeas corpus relief. We affirm.

I. Facts.

A man named James Salter allegedly hired King to find a hit man to kill Salter’s ex-wife Julie. The hit man, Hill, killed Mrs. Salter pursuant to King’s arrangement. King and Hill were convicted, in separate trials, but Salter was acquitted.

King was initially indicted on March 5, 1982, while he was in the custody of the State of Washington. He was transferred to Oregon pursuant to the Interstate Agreement on Detainers. The State of Oregon took custody of King on November 20, 1982. With extensions agreed to by King, the State of Oregon initially had until April 18, 1983 to try King under the indictment.…

dissenting:

Because the State of Oregon failed to hon- or its obligations to King under the terms of *1411 a plea agreement, I dissent from the majority opinion. I believe that the district court erred in finding that King’s due process rights were not violated.

BACKGROUND

On April 19, 1983, King was indicted for the aggravated murder and murder of Julie Salter in Clackamas County, Oregon. On August 3,1983, King and the State of Oregon (“the state”) entered into a plea agreement, which was accepted by the court. Under the terms of the agreement:

1. King agreed to provide information to the state concerning the involvement of co-defendant James Salter in the murder of Salter’s ex-wife, Julie. King also agreed to testify for the state at any bail hearings, grand jury proceedings, and trials in the James Salter prosecution.

2. In exchange for King’s cooperation, the state agreed to “allow [King] to enter a plea of guilty to the charge of murder with the understanding that [King would] receive a life sentence with an order that he serve a minimum of ten years before being eligible for parole, and that said sentence will run concurrent to any sentence the defendant is now…