O'Reagan v. Commissioner of Correction

Syllabus

The petitioner, who had been convicted on guilty pleas, of the crimes of burglary in the second degree, conspiracy to commit robbery in the second degree and sale of a narcotic substance, sought a writ of habeas corpus, claiming, inter alia, ineffective assistance and deficient perfor- mance of his trial counsel. Following his pleas, the trial court sentenced the petitioner to a ten year term of incarceration, execution suspended after four years, followed by five years of probation for the burglary conviction, three years of incarceration for the robbery conviction, and one year of incarceration for the narcotics conviction, to be served concurrently. Several years later, the petitioner, who was born in Jamaica, was taken into federal immigration custody and removal pro- ceedings were initiated. At the time he was taken into custody, the sentences for his robbery and narcotics convictions had fully expired, but he was still serving his sentence for burglary due to the pendency of a violation of probation, which interrupted the period of the sentence. Before the habeas court, the respondent Commissioner of Correction alleged that the court lacked jurisdiction over the habeas petition because the petitioner was not in custody as a result of the convictions and sentences he challenged, and, after a hearing, the court determined that, at the time the petitioner filed his habeas petition, he was not in custody on the robbery and narcotics convictions and dismissed the claims related to those convictions. Following a trial on the remaining claims, the court rendered judgment denying the petition, from which the petitioner, on the granting of certification, appealed to this court. Held: 1. The habeas court properly determined that the petitioner was not in custody on the convictions of conspiracy to commit robbery and sale of a narcotic substance at the time he filed the habeas action and it did not have jurisdiction over those two convictions: it was undisputed that the