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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 17-12930
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 4:14-cv-00178-RH-CAS
TOMMY LEE GAINES,
Petitioner-Appellant,
versus
CHAIRMAN, FLORIDA PAROLE COMMISSION,
SECRETARY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
Respondents-Appellees.
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Florida
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(August 14, 2018)
Before MARCUS, BRANCH, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
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Tommy Lee Gaines, a Florida prisoner proceeding pro se, appeals the
district court’s denial, without a hearing, of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition. On
appeal, he argues that the Florida Parole Commission (“the Commission”) violated
his due process rights by withholding evidence and failing to hold a hearing on his
conditional release violation. The district court issued a certificate of appealability
(“COA”) on the following issue: whether the district court properly denied,
without a hearing, Gaines’s claim that his waiver of a hearing before the
Commission was involuntary and that the Commission’s revocation of his
conditional release without a hearing thus violated the Due Process Clause. We
conclude that the state habeas court’s determination that Gaines was afforded due
process was not contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established
federal law and was not based on an unreasonable determination of the facts. We
therefore affirm the district court’s denial of Gaines’s § 2254 petition.
I. STANDARD
In examining the district court’s denial of a § 2254 petition, we review
questions of law and mixed questions of law and fact de novo and findings of fact
for clear error. Stewart v. Sec’y, Dep’t of Corr.,
476 F.3d 1193, 1208 (11th Cir.
2007). We review a district court’s decision to grant or deny an evidentiary hearing
for abuse of discretion. McNair v. Campbell,
416 F.3d 1291, 1297 (11th Cir.
2005).
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As amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
(“AEDPA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) prohibits federal courts from granting habeas
relief on claims previously adjudicated on the merits in state court unless the state
court decision (1) was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of,
clearly established federal law as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court, or
(2) was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the
evidence presented in the state court proceeding. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1)–(2). In
habeas proceedings, a determination of a factual issue made by a state court is
presumed to be correct, and the applicant has the burden of rebutting the
presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence.
Id. § 2254(e)(1).
II. BACKGROUND
In 1990, Gaines pled guilty in Florida state court to possession of a firearm
by a convicted felon and possession of cocaine. The Florida state court sentenced
Gaines to thirty years and ten years imprisonment. On September 1, 2008, Gaines
was placed on conditional supervised release until June 8, 2020. One condition of
this release required Gaines to “obey all laws, ordinances, and statutory conditions
of conditional release.”
On May 26, 2012, Gaines was arrested after being involved in a physical
altercation with another man. Deputy Kenneth Roberts of the Putnam County
Sheriff’s Office responded to the incident and wrote a police report about the
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arrest. According to the report, Gaines stated that the other man insulted Gaines’s
girlfriend and the “next thing he knew they were fighting.” On May 31, 2012, the
Florida Parole Commission issued a “warrant for retaking of conditional release”
based on the May 26, 2012 arrest and police report.
On June 6, 2012, Parole Examiner Richard Hughes met with Gaines
regarding the conditional release violation proceedings. Hughes presented Gaines
with a Notice of Hearing form, which charged Gaines with “failing to obey all
laws, ordinances or statutory conditions of Conditional Release, in that on or about
May 26, 2012, in Putnam County, Florida, he did unlawfully touch, strike, or cause
bodily harm to [the victim], against the will of said victim.” Hughes also presented
Gaines with a Notice of Rights form, which informed Gaines that he had the
following rights: the right to appear and speak on his own behalf at a release
violation hearing; the right to present evidence on his own behalf, including the
right to obtain witnesses; the right to examine evidence to be used against him and
to confront and cross examine adverse witnesses at the violation hearing; the right
to be represented by counsel; and the right to receive fourteen days advance notice
of the hearing. Gaines initialed the form next to the following provision: “I hereby
freely and voluntarily waive my right to said violation hearing.”
Gaines also signed a separate Waiver of Conditional Release Violation
Hearing form. By signing the waiver, Gaines acknowledged that his rights had
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been explained to him and that he understood them. He acknowledged that he was
“waiving the requirement for the Commission to conduct a violation hearing
regarding [his] alleged violations” and that he understood he may be found guilty
of the charges regardless of whether such charges resulted in a conviction. Gaines
acknowledged that he was given a Withdrawal of Voluntary Waiver form,
allowing him to withdraw his waiver of the violation hearing within fourteen days.
Gaines further acknowledged that “no promises, threats or inducements” were
made to him to cause him to sign the form.
On June 10, 2012, Gaines sent a letter to the Commission, admitting that he
did get into a fight with a man who insulted his girlfriend, saying he was sorry, and
asking the Commission to reinstate his conditional release. On July 11, 2012, the
Commission issued an order revoking Gaines’s conditional release. The
Commission primarily relied on Deputy Roberts’s police report of the incident.
Gaines filed a petition for habeas corpus in state court, arguing in part that
the Commission violated his due process rights by revoking his conditional release
without a hearing. Specifically, he claimed that his waiver was involuntary
because: (1) he signed the waiver in reliance on Hughes’s assurance that his
conditional release would be reinstated due to the fact that he was only charged
with a misdemeanor, and (2) he was not given a copy of Deputy Roberts’s police
report before he signed the waiver forms. The state court denied the petition,
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finding that Gaines voluntarily waived his right to a conditional release violation
hearing. The Florida court of appeals affirmed. Gaines then filed the present
§ 2254 petition in federal district court, arguing that the Commission violated his
due process rights by revoking his conditional release without a hearing.
III. DISCUSSION
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States
Constitution provides that “[n]o state shall . . . deprive any person of life, liberty,
or property, without due process of law.” U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. In
Morrissey v. Brewer,
408 U.S. 471,
92 S. Ct. 2593,
33 L. Ed. 2d 484 (1972), the
Supreme Court outlined the due process requirements for parole revocation
hearings.
Id. at 485–89, 92 S. Ct. 2602–05. While the “full panoply of rights due a
defendant” in criminal proceedings “does not apply to parole revocations,” the
Supreme Court held that there are certain “minimum requirements of due process”
for revocation proceedings, including:
(a) written notice of the claimed violations of parole; (b) disclosure to
the parolee of evidence against him; (c) opportunity to be heard in
person and to present witnesses and documentary evidence; (d) the
right to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses (unless the
hearing officer specifically finds good cause for not allowing
confrontation); (e) a ‘neutral and detached’ hearing body such as a
traditional parole board, members of which need not be judicial
officers or lawyers; and (f) a written statement by the factfinders as to
the evidence relied on and reasons for revoking parole.
Id. at 480, 489, 92 S. Ct. at 2600, 2604 (quotations omitted).
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The district court did not err in denying Gaines’s habeas petition. First, the
state habeas court reasonably found that Gaines voluntarily waived his right to a
hearing. By initialing the Notice of Rights form and signing the Waiver of
Conditional Release Hearing form, Gaines acknowledged that he understood his
rights, that no promises, threats, or inducements caused him to sign, and that he
freely chose to waive his right to a hearing. Additionally, the state habeas court
considered the declaration of Parole Examiner Hughes, which the Commission
offered in opposition to Gaines’s claim that his waiver was involuntary. Hughes
states that Gaines elected to waive his right to a hearing after Hughes explained to
him the consequences of doing so. Hughes declares that Gaines’s claim that
Hughes informed him that his conditional release would be reinstated is
“absolutely false.” Gaines offers no evidence to the contrary. Given this record, the
state habeas court reasonably found that Gaines’s waiver was voluntary.
The state habeas court also reasonably concluded that the Commission
complied with the minimum due process requirements for revocation proceedings.
The Commission, through parole examiner Hughes, provided Gaines with written
notice of his parole violation as well as his rights to have evidence disclosed to him
and to appear at a parole violation hearing. The record supports the state habeas
court’s conclusion that Gaines voluntarily waived those rights. Gaines does not
offer any evidence to support his claim that he requested and was denied a copy of
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Deputy Roberts’s police report before July 11, 2012, when the Commission
revoked his conditional release. Given that Gaines was advised of his right to have
evidence disclosed and freely chose to waive his right to a hearing without
requesting said evidence, the state court’s conclusion that Gaines was afforded due
process is not contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established
federal law. See
Morrissey, 408 U.S. at 490, 92 S. Ct. at 2604 (“We have no
thought to create an inflexible structure for parole revocation procedures.”).
Finally, the district court did not abuse its discretion by failing to hold an
evidentiary hearing regarding Gaines’s § 2254 petition. When a state court has
adjudicated the claim presented by the petitioner, an evidentiary hearing may only
be granted if the federal court concludes that the state court unreasonably applied
clearly established federal law or made an unreasonable determination of fact.
Landers v. Warden,
776 F.3d 1288, 1294–95 (11th Cir. 2015). Here, the district
court correctly concluded that an evidentiary hearing was not necessary because
the state habeas court did not unreasonably apply federal law or make
unreasonable findings of fact.
AFFIRMED.
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