Opinion
No. 412, 2002
Submitted: October 25, 2002
Decided: December 18, 2002
Court Below-Superior Court of the State of Delaware, in and for New Castle County C.A. Nos. 02M-05-092 02M-06-071
Affirmed.
Unpublished opinion is below.
ALTON CANNON, Defendant Below-Appellant, v. STATE OF DELAWARE, Plaintiff Below-Appellee. No. 412, 2002 In the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware. Submitted: October 25, 2002 Decided: December 18, 2002
Before VEASEY, Chief Justice, HOLLAND and STEELE, Justices
E. Norman Veasey, Chief Justice:
ORDER
This 18th day of December 2002, upon consideration of the briefs on appeal and the record below, it appears to the Court that:
(1) The defendant-appellant, Alton Cannon, filed an appeal from the Superior Court's June 28, 2002 order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We find no merit to the appeal. Accordingly, we AFFIRM.
In addition to the June 28, 2002 order, Cannon also attached to his notice of appeal a copy of the Superior Court's June 27, 2002 order denying his request to reinstate good time credits he claimed were improperly taken away from him.
(2) In September 1997, Cannon was indicted on charges of Unlawful Sexual Intercourse in the First Degree, Kidnaping in the First Degree and Assault. In September 1998, Cannon pleaded guilty to Assault in the Second Degree and Unlawful Sexual Contact in the First Degree. The State dismissed the remaining charges. In December 1998, Cannon was sentenced to a total of 10 years incarceration at Level V, to be suspended after 5 years for 3 years at Level IV Halfway House, to be suspended for 1 year at Level IV Halfway House and decreasing levels of probation.
(3) In April 2001, an administrative warrant was issued, alleging that Cannon was disorderly upon his arrival at the Level IV VOP Center and that he kicked a door in his housing area. A violation of probation ("VOP") hearing was held on April 17, 2002 and Cannon was found to have committed a VOP.
His probation in connection with his assault conviction was revoked and his remaining sentence of 3 years incarceration at Level V was reimposed. Cannon did not appeal the finding of a VOP or the VOP sentence.
(4) In this appeal, Cannon claims that the kicking of the door was a "minor infraction" that should have been addressed by the Department of Correction rather than by the Superior Court at a VOP hearing. Cannon also claims that the Superior Court improperly deprived him of an early release, since he lost his accrued good time credits as a result of the finding of a VOP.
Cannon, finally, claims that he should not have been at the VOP Center at all, since his sentence contemplated his release from Level V confinement to a "Level IV-Halfway House."
This statement of Cannon's claims fairly summarizes the eight separate claims he lists in his opening brief.
(5) In Delaware, the writ of habeas corpus provides relief on a very limited basis. Habeas corpus only provides "an opportunity for one illegally confined or incarcerated to obtain judicial review of the jurisdiction of the court ordering the commitment." "Habeas corpus relief is not available to `[p]ersons committed or detained on a charge of treason or felony, the species whereof is plainly and fully set forth in the commitment.'"
Hall v. Carr, 692 A.2d 888, 891 (Del. 1997).
Id.
Id. (quoting DEL. CODE ANN. tit. 10, § 6902(1)).
(6) Cannon is not entitled to habeas corpus relief because he has failed to show that the Superior Court did not have jurisdiction in December 1998 to impose his sentence for assault or in April 2002 to reimpose the suspended portion of his sentence for assault upon a finding of a VOP. Cannon did not file a direct appeal from the finding of a VOP or the VOP sentence. The extraordinary writ procedure may not be used as a substitute for a direct appeal.
In re Barbee, 693 A.2d 317, 319 (Del. 1997).
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the Superior Court is AFFIRMED.