Fleeman v. Hudspeth
Fleeman v. Hudspeth
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This is an original proceedings in habeas corpus. Petitioner is an inmate of our state penitentiary. The facts disclosed by the record before us may be stated briefly as follows: On October 18, 1934, the petitioner, Ralph W. Fleeman, and two companions, starting from near Kansas City in a car they had stolen, drove to Hutchinson and robbed two stores. The next day they were at Eureka, where they robbed one store, and drove to Hot Springs, Ark. Leaving there on the evening of October 23, with a woman companion, they drove to Wichita, and the next day, by the display of firearms, robbed three persons of $110.29. Later, on October 24, they were attempting to break into a mercantile store in Wichita for the purpose of robbing it when they were accosted by the police and engaged in a gun battle with them. The result was that Fleeman (and others) were captured and taken into custody. On November 22,1934, the county attorney filed informations in the district court in two criminal actions against Fleeman (and others). One of these informations charged robbery in the- first degree (G. S. 1935, 21-527), and the other charged assault upon the police officers with deadly weapons and with intent to kill (G. S. 1935, 21-431). These criminal actions were distributed, one of them to division 1 and the other to division 2 of the district court of Sedgwick county. On January 15,1935, the criminal action in division 1
The petition in the present proceedings was filed December 18,
On April 25, 1946, the petitioner filed an affidavit in this cause in which he abandoned the allegations of his petition to the effect that the warden’s denial of his right to mail a letter to the clerk of the district court of Sedgwick county as a notice of appeal in his cases was “a recorded fact” which petitioner was prepared to prove “by a certificate, or a deposition certified by Lacy M. Simpson,” and in lieu thereof stated in his affidavit that on or about February 15, 1935, he prepared a letter to the clerk of the district court of Sedgwick county, intended as a notice of appeal in 'his two cases to the supreme court of the state; that he enclosed that letter in an envelope and left it in the captain’s office at the penitentiary ; that shortly thereafter the letter he had written the clerk of the district court, together with the original envelope, was returned to him through regular channels, and “that written on said envelope was a note stating in substance that the penitentiary regulations did not permit inmates of the penitentiary to send out such notices, that such notices had to be handled by attorneys. That said notation was signed by the then warden of the said penitentiary, one Lacey M. Simpson”; that sometime later, about March, 1935, the prison officials ordered a “shake down of all inmates” cells, in the course of which those papers were taken from
The statements contained in this affidavit are now the sole ground upon which the petitioner seeks his release by habeas corpus, and they are supported by his affidavit alone.
Prior to the filing of this affidavit Lacey M. Simpson had filed an affidavit in this proceeding in which he says that “during the time that he was warden and the petitioner, Ralph Fleeman, was an inmate of the penitentiary, he was given the same rights as any other inmate of the penitentiary and that during said time, he was never denied the right to see his lawyer, to communicate with legal counsel or prevented from sending out letters or correspondence, applications or legal documents by which he could have completed or perfected his appeal. Your affiant further denies that he prevented the petitioner from perfecting his appeal in any way.” There was also filed herein the affidavit of C. W. Wilson which recites that he was the record clerk of the state penitentiary and as such had in his custody records in regard to inmates of the institution; that he had access to all other records in regard to other inmates which are filed with officials of the penitentiary; that his attention had been called to the allegation of the petition in this case; that from a full examination of all the records of the penitentiary pertaining to petitioner he has been unable to find any record of such an order, or any order of that nature whatsoever; that on the 15th day of February, 1935, the petitioner was not in solitary confinement and had the same privileges as other inmates of the penitentiary, which included the right to send out communications to his lawyer, or to interview his lawyer in the event of a visit by same, and to send all applications or other legal process out of the institution for the purpose of filing same in court, and that from affiant’s knowledge no such rights were denied the petitioner, and stated it as his opinion that no such order as set out in the petition herein was made in writing or orally by the warden, Lacey M. Simpson, or by anyone under his command. It is true these affidavits were filed before the last affidavit filed by the petitioner, but if they are true the statements made in the petitioner’s affidavit cannot be correct.
Our legal problem here is to weigh the testimony of the petitioner as contained in his later affidavit as against the testimony of the record clerk contained in his affidavit filed herein and the testimony of the former warden, Simpson, in his affidavit filed herein, together
The writ prayed for is denied.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.