United States v. Charles Felix

GLD-147 NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
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No. 12-4192
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v.
CHARLES FELIX,
Appellant
____________________________________
On Appeal from the District Court
for the District of the Virgin Islands
(D.C. Crim. No. 76-cr-00258)
District Judge: Honorable Curtis V. Gómez
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Submitted for a Decision on the Issuance of a Certificate
of Appealability and for Possible Summary Action
Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 27.4 and I.O.P. 10.6
March 7, 2013
Before: FUENTES, FISHER and GREENBERG, Circuit Judges
(Opinion filed: March 15, 2013 )
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OPINION
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PER CURIAM
Since 1977, Charles Felix has been serving a sentence of life imprisonment for
first-degree murder imposed by the District Court in its former capacity as a Virgin
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Islands local court. In 2009, he filed pro se the petition at issue here, which he captioned
as a “motion for writ of habeas corpus” and supplemented with several other filings.
Felix requested release from prison on the ground that his sentence does not preclude
parole under Virgin Islands law and that, although he has been eligible for parole
pursuant to 5 V.I.C. § 4601 since 1992, he has not yet received a parole hearing.
The District Court properly identified Felix’s challenge as one to the lack of parole
consideration but dismissed it for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Parrott v.
Government of the Virgin Islands, 230 F.3d 615 (3d Cir. 2000). In that case, we held that
the District Court lacks jurisdiction under the Virgin Islands habeas statute, 5 V.I.C.
§ 1303, over challenges to territorial convictions by the District Court sitting as a
territorial court. See Parrott, 230 F.3d at 621. The District Court acknowledged that
Felix invoked the Virgin Islands parole statute rather than the Virgin Islands habeas
statute, but it reasoned that the distinction makes no jurisdictional difference.
The nature of Felix’s challenge does indeed make a difference, however, as a
decision that we issued on the same day as Parrot (but that the Government did not bring
to the District Court’s attention) makes clear. In Callwood v. Enos, 230 F.3d 627 (3d Cir.
2000), the petitioner brought a due process challenge to the Virgin Islands Bureau of
Correction’s failure to recommend him for parole eligibility and sought a parole hearing
under the same Virgin Islands statute at issue here. See id. at 629. Like Felix, the
petitioner had been convicted of a territorial crime by the District Court sitting as a
territorial court. See id. at 628-29. Thus, as in this case, “the Virgin Islands is
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responsible for execution of his . . . sentence, including his eligibility for parole.” Id. at
631. We held that the District Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to review
the Virgin Islands’ execution of the petitioner’s sentence. See id. at 633. We also
explained that § 2241 petitioners must first exhaust parole challenges in territorial court
because “the Territorial Court [now called the Virgin Islands Superior Court] will no
doubt be more familiar with the provisions and requirements of the territorial parole
statute and should be given an opportunity to provide a remedy, if appropriate, before
[petitioner] seeks federal habeas corpus relief.” Id. at 634.
Felix’s pro se petition thus raises a challenge to the execution of his sentence over
which the District Court had jurisdiction under § 2241. The record does not reveal
whether Felix has exhausted that challenge in the territorial courts. It appears that he may
at least have attempted to do so, however, because he asserted in a motion for counsel in
the District Court: “Who have jurisdiction of Felix’s case? I was sent from Superior
Court, to District Court and back.” Thus, we will vacate and remand for the District
Court to exercise its jurisdiction over Felix’s petition. We express no opinion on the
merits of Felix’s claim or on whether he has exhausted it, but we note that Felix is
entitled to habeas relief under § 2241 only if the execution of his sentence is in violation
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of federal law. See Callwood, 230 F.3d at 634 n.8.1
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Felix does not require a certificate of appealability to appeal the dismissal of his
§ 2241 petition, see Callwood, 230 F.3d at 633 n.7, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to
28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253. Felix’s petition was docketed as a motion under 28 U.S.C.
§ 2255 in the District Court, but he did not caption it as a § 2255 motion and the District
Court properly declined to treat it as one.
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