Deese v. United States
Deese v. United States
Opinion of the Court
OPINION AND ORDER
This proceeding, under Section 2255, 28 U.S.C., by a federal petitioner, serving a twenty-three year sentence imposed by this Court at Columbia, on October 26, 1959, following a guilty plea to a charge of armed bank robbery (Sections 2113(a) and 2113(d), 18 U.S.C.) seeks the vacation of a plea of guilty as entered involuntarily and without his understanding or consent.
Counsel was appointed for him and a full evidentiary hearing had on August 25, 1969, in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
At the time of his arraignment on this charge, the petitioner was already no stranger to the criminal law. Beginning in 1948, he has plead guilty and served time for the commission of some seven crimes of high and aggravated nature. Actually, he had been released from prison only four months prior to the commission of the crime to which he plead guilty in the prosecution herein involved.
He has not denied at any time that, using a sawed-off shotgun, he, along with confederates, did rob the Bank of Kershaw at Kershaw, South Carolina, as charged in the indictment to which his plea was had. After the robbery, he sought to escape in a car but, in some way, wrecked it. He then endeavored to stop a passing motorist and when the motorist, after first slowing down, failed to stop, he shot out the back window of the car.
After he was apprehended, he gave a voluntary statement to the FBI, admitting freely and fully his guilt. In such confession, he explained that he had been drinking beer and vodka before the robbery. His confederates were arraigned and plead guilty first: One was given a prison sentence of eighteen (18) years and the other one, a juvenile, was, committed to the custody of the Attorney General until his twenty-first birthday. Prior to his arraignment, counsel was appointed for petitioner. Upon his arraignment, he along with his appointed counsel, requested that, before he was called on to plead, he be placed under psychiatric observation to determine whether he was subject to periods of temporary insanity and mental irresponsibility. As a predicate for such request, the petitioner stated that he had begun having “periods of black-outs since 1955”. He claimed a lack of memory during these “black-outs”. With particular reference to the robbery charged in his indictment he said he had “a recollection of participating in the bank robbery, your Honor, but it is more like I was a spectator than I was an actual participant in the crime”. He
Almost five months later, the petitioner was brought again before the Court to enter his plea. At this time the District Attorney called to the Court’s attention the favorable report on the mental examination of the petitioner. The Clerk thereupon inquired of petitioner’s counsel whether petitioner was “familiar with the charges contained in this indictment”. Receiving an affirmative reply and being advised that the petitioner waived formal arraignment, the Clerk asked how the petitioner plead. Counsel answered, “He pleads guilty as charged”.
A considerable colloquy between the Court and petitioner’s counsel, in which petitioner participated, followed. In the course of that colloquy, during all of which petitioner was an interested spectator and sometime participant, petitioner’s attorney stated that the petitioner had told him that for “a long period of time” he had taken benzedrine tablets “but”, he had discontinued such habit “for some time before this happened, but he thinks that may have had something to do with his mental condition at the time (of the crime)”. His attorney added that, “However, he (the petitioner) does recognize that under the eyes of the law that he is guilty. And, he is pleading guilty as such to the charge before the Court. * * * He is charged with a very bad crime. We know that — And I have told him that he is going to get a sentence, which he knows. And, he knows that he will get somewhat of a stiff sentence.” It then developed that the petitioner was wanted both in Oregon and South Carolina for parole violations, and the petitioner himself expressed concern “that if a person had a detainer against him— I mean, if they were wanted in another place — that they became ineligible” for parole. For this reason, leniency in sentence was requested for the petitioner, whose qualifications for parole, because of the detainers, would be far less favorable than that of his confederate who had received, as previously pointed out, an eighteen year sentence. After comparing the relative responsibility of the petitioner and his confederate for the crime and being advised that the petitioner, during the robbery, had hit one of the persons in the bank with “a shotgun” and had “punched another in the neck”, and, following the robbery, had “shot the back glass” out of a car that would not stop to pick him up, the Court indicated that he felt that the petitioner was more involved than his confederate, who “didn’t do anything except gather the money". However, the Court evidenced a strong and compassionate disposition to fashion his sentence so that the detainers outstanding against the petitioner might not deter him from securing favorable parole action at such time as the Board of Parole deemed it appropriate. Sentence was thereafter imposed with such provision. Following the sentence, the petitioner was transferred to the Atlanta prison where he has been since.
Following his transfer to Atlanta, the petitioner filed two earlier petitions for modifications of his sentence with this Court. In the first, he sought credit for prison time prior to sentence. The second attacked the preference in sentence given his confederate, contending that the difference' in their sentences represented a denial of “the equal protection of the laws”. In neither of those petitions did the petitioner allege that his plea of guilty was involuntary or that his attorney had failed in any particular to
The petitioner now asserts that he was under the influence of benzedrine when he was sentenced, that, irrespective of what his attorney stated to the Court, he did not understand he was pleading guilty or so intend,
The two contentions really present largely related factual issues. Whether under Rule 11, as it existed in 1959, or under a claim of mental incompetency to stand trial, the test of the validity of petitioner’s plea is largely alike; it turns, in either case, on the capacity of the defendant to understand intelligently the proceedings and the charges against him. Thus, under Rule 11, as it existed in 1959, the Court was charged with the duty of ascertaining that a defendant’s guilty plea was made voluntarily
I am convinced the record abundantly establishes, and I do find, that the petitioner, in entering his plea of guilty herein, did have the mental competency to enter such plea, did fully and intelligently understand the charges against him, and did enter his plea voluntarily.
Plaintiff’s counsel, who reviewed his case with him and advised him both at his initial hearing and at the subsequent hearing when he was sentenced, testified that there was nothing in the attitude, demeanor or conversation of the petitioner on the day of sentencing to indicate that the defendant was not mentally alert, fully able to consult with his lawyer on his legal rights with a reasonable degree of rational understanding.
The District Judge, who accepted petitioner’s plea, was a jurist of wide experience in criminal matters and of particularly sound judgment. The petitioner, it is true, entered his plea through his counsel. But he did participate in the Court’s discussion of the consequences of petitioner’s plea and especially its effect upon the right of parole. The Court thus had an opportunity to observe and appraise the demeanor of the petitioner. If there had been, either in his deportment or in his conversation, any indication that the petitioner was under the influence of any drug that interfered with his ability rationally to protect his interests, the Court, one may safely assume, would not have proceeded and would not have accepted the plea (see, United States v. Bostic (D.C.D.C. 1962) 206 F.Supp. 855, 858, aff. 115 U.S.App.D.C. 79, 317 F.2d 143); indeed, it would have been his duty so to have done. Pate v. Robinson (1966) 383 U.S. 375, 385, 86 S.Ct. 836, 15 L.Ed.2d 815; Townes v. United States (C.C.A. 4, 1966) 371 F.2d F.2d 930, 934, cert. den. 387 U.S. 947, 87 S.Ct. 2083, 18 L.Ed.2d 1335; cf. Sanders v. United States, supra (373 U.S. 1, 83 S.Ct. 1068).
The strongest evidence of his competency, however, is supplied by the petitioner himself. It must be recalled that he was no silent and inactive participant in the proceedings. He was alert to advise his counsel of his rights to parole, as those rights were affected by certain detainers outstanding against the petitioner and filed by both Oregon and South Carolina. He showed a singular knowledge of the detainers, the reasons for such and the periods of unserved time involved. He restated to the Court the legal effect of such detainers on his right to parole, should the Court impose, as he knew it would, a prison sentence. In the face of this demonstration of mental acuteness, of awareness of the progress of the proceedings and the consequences of his plea, any claim of incompetency on the part of the petitioner at the time of his sentencing is clearly without merit.
It seems equally clear that, not only did the petitioner have the competency to understand these proceedings, but that he did in fact enter his plea voluntarily and understandingly, with a full knowledge of its consequences, in substantial compliance with Rule 11, as that rule existed in 1959, and as it was construed and applied prior to the decision in McCarthy v. United States (1969) 394 U.S. 459, 89 S.Ct. 1166, 22 L.Ed.2d 418, which is applicable only to pleas entered after April 12, 1969. Holliday v. United States (1969) 394 U.S. 831, 833, 89 S.Ct. 1498, 23 L.Ed.2d 16.
It was settled in this Circuit, prior to McCarthy, that no particular ritual needed to be followed by the District Court in carrying out the mandate of Rule 11. Townes v. United States, supra (371 F.2d at p. 939, concurring opinion of Judge Craven); Mayes v. United States (C.C.A. 8, 1949) 177 F.2d
Accepting the premise that the burden of establishing that the petitioner intelligently understood the consequences of his guilty plea rested on the Government —the rule where there had not been full compliance with Rule 11 (Gundlach v. United States, supra, but, cf. United States v. Kincaid (C.C.A. 4, 1966) 362 F.2d 939, 941, note 5), a conclusion hardly justified in this case where there appears to have been compliance with the Rule as it then existed and had been construed, — I find that the Government has fully sustained such burden as stated in Martin, supra. Several months before his plea, the petitioner had been given a copy of the indictment. He was not untutored in the criminal law and, as I have said, he was no stranger in the criminal courts. He had had extensive experience with criminal indictments and criminal pleas. He had, as stated, already plead guilty to a number of indictments charging aggravated crimes. He knew the effect of a guilty plea. His appointed counsel testified that he reviewed with the petitioner the indictment and the charges therein included. His counsel, in open court, and in the presence of the petitioner, advised the Court that the petitioner was “familiar with the charges in the indictment” and desired to plead “guilty as charged”.
The petitioner has been imprisoned under his plea and the sentence entered thereon for about ten years. During all that time, his mind, by his own statement, has been clear and he has had no access to benzedrine. He has unquestionably known all that time whether his plea of guilty was knowingly entered or whether, because of his benzedrine addiction, he had acted without understanding. See, Wong Doo v. United States (1924) 265 U.S. 239, 241, 44 S.Ct. 524, 68 L.Ed. 999. He has previously filed two petitions seeking changes in his sentence. In neither of these petitions did he assert that his plea was wrongly entered or that he had not intended to plead guilty; in fact, both assumed the validity of the plea and sought only to secure modifications in the sentence entered on such plea. The fact that petitioner has delayed for ten years to make his present claim of involuntary plea and the fact that in his prior petitions he has assumed that his plea was free of defect and voluntary (while, of course, not to be given controlling weight
Actually, the petitioner’s own description of his condition, as created when he consumed benzedrine, was such as to lend little or no force to his claim of incompetency at trial. The principal symptom he identified was loss of memory. What the connection of this symptom had with the alleged involuntariness of his plea is not entirely clear. It certainly did not prevent him from recalling as in a “dream” every detail of his crime; and while he said it all seemed as if he was a “spectator" and not “a participant” at the crime, he knew that what he had done was “wrong”. It is equally certain it did not prevent him from recalling, even ten years afterwards, what had occurred during the taking of his plea. At that time he was conscious of what he had done, that it was wrong and that he was to be punished for it. Even his own depiction of his condition at the time of sentencing thus does not measure up to a legal want of competency to stand trial. In fact, his charge of incompetency is largely a conclusory allegation, which finds support neither in the record nor even in the testimony of the petitioner.
Appointed counsel for the petitioner is to be commended for the able manner in which he has presented the petitioner’s case. He has shown great diligence in developing every possible means of aiding the petitioner. The Court is grateful to him.
The petition herein, for the foregoing reasons, I find to be without merit and is accordingly dismissed,
And it is so ordered.
. Because of the nature of the charges, an evidentiary hearing seemed proper. See, Lovedahl v. State of North Carolina (C.C.A.4, 1964) 338 F.2d 512, 514; Hilliard v. United States, C.C.A. S.C., Aug. 25, 1969, Memorandum Decision.
. Any claim of intoxication, whether from alcohol or benzedrine, as a defense to the charges in the indictment against the defendant cannot be raised or considered in a motion to vacate a plea. Davis v. United States (C.C.A.8, 1986) 358 F.2d 360, 362, note 2; Richards v. United States (C.C.A.8, 1965) 342 F.2d 962, 963; Hallowell v. Hunter (C.C.A.10, 1951) 186 F.2d 873, 874; Berube v. United States (D.C.Cal. 1968) 284 F.Supp. 1, 5, aff. 4 Cir., 401 F.2d 773, cert. den. 393 U.S. 1104, 89 S.Ct. 908, 21 L.Ed.2d 798. The issue here concerns solely the defendant’s competency to stand trial. As the Court in Winn v. United States (1959) 106 U.S.App.D.C. 133, 270 F.2d 326, 328, cert. den. 365 U.S. 848, 81 S.Ct. 810, 5 L.Ed.2d 812, remarked :
“There is a vast difference between that mental state which permits an accused to be tried and that which permits him to be held responsible for a crime.”
. Rule 11, as it existed at the time of petitioner’s plea (i. e., 1959), did not require specifically that the defendant be addressed “personally” on his plea nor was the statement of “the consequences of the plea” demanded; it only required that the Court determine that the plea was entered voluntarily “with understanding of the nature of the charge”. The obligation imposed on the Court to address the defendant “personally” and to advise him of “the consequences of the plea” was added by the amendments of 1966. See Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure (1969) vol. 1, p. 354.
. A voluntary act may be defined as “the product of a rational intellect and a free will”. Fowler v. Peyton (C.C.A.4, 1969) 407 F.2d 1329, quoting Blackburn v. Alabama (1960) 361 U.S. 199, 208, 80 S.Ct. 274, 280, 4 L.Ed.2d 242.
. So much the law required prior to the promulgation of the Rule. Fogus v. United States (C.C.A.4, 1929) 34 F.2d 97, 98.
. Pledger v. United States (C.C.A.4, 1959) 272 F.2d 69, 70.
. In the following cases, pleas from defendants, who claimed they were under the influence of drugs when entering such pleas, were considered:
Sanders v. United States (1963) 373 U.S. 1, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 10 L.Ed.2d 148; United States v. Tom, supra (340 F.2d 127) (In this case, it was undisputed that defendant “was taking narcotics at time of trial”) ;
Wade v. Yeager (C.C.A.3, 1967) 377 F.2d 841, 844, cert. den. 393 U.S. 893, 89 S.Ct. 218, 21 L.Ed.2d 173;
United States v. Pledger, supra, (272 F.2d 69, 70), and 301 F.2d 906;
Johnston v. United States (C.C.A.10, 1961) 292 F.2d 51, 53, cert. den. 360 U.S. 935, 79 S.Ct. 1454, 3 L.Ed.2d 1547;
United States v. McNicholas, supra, (298 F.2d 914) ;
Sanders v. Allen (1938) 69 App.D.C. 307, 100 F.2d 717, 719-720;
Davis v. United States, supra (358 F.2d 360) ;
Mirra v. United States (D.C.N.Y. 1966) 255 F.Supp. 570, 579-582, aff. 2 Cir., 379 F.2d 782, cert. den. 389 U.S. 1022, 88 S.Ct. 593, 19 L.Ed.2d 667; Hansford v. United States, supra, (365 F.2d 920, 923) ;
Howell v. United States (D.C.Ill. 1968) 282 F.Supp. 246, 248.
. On the competency of such testimony, despite the attorney-client privilege, see, United States ex rel. Richardson v. McMann (C.C.A.2, 1969) 408 F.2d 48, 53; United States v. Kendrick (C.C.A.4, 1964) 331 F.2d 110, 113-114; Howell v. United States, supra (282 F.Supp. at p. 250.)
In the last cited case, the Court remarked: “This type of testimony has recently been allowed in a number of cases, and would seem to be a practical necessity in order for an evidentiary hearing to be complete and accurate when a motion to vacate sentence is brought on the ground of incompetency to stand trial.”
Cf., Gunther v. United States (1956) 97 U.S.App.D.C. 254, 230 F.2d 222. This case is unusual. The issue was the mental competency of the defendant to stand trial. On that issue, counsel was appointed. Subsequently, the original counsel was replaced and a new counsel was appointed. The Government sought to examine the first counsel on the very issue in connection with which he was appointed to represent the defendant. This seems quite a difference from the cases cited supra.
. See, for instances where such testimony was relied on,
United States v. McNickolas, supra, (298 F.2d at pp. 915-916) ;
Sturrup v. United States, (D.C.N.C. 1963) 218 F.Supp. 279, 283;
Lovedahl v. State of North Carolina, supra, (338 F.2d at p. 514) ;
United States v. Kendrick, supra, (331 F.2d at pp. 113-114).
Of course, as the Court remarked in Hansford v. United States, (365 F.2d at p. 924, note 11), “the fact that defense counsel did not think defendant incompetent, although of evidentiary value, can never he dispositive.”
See, also, Sims v. United States (D.C.Md. 1966) 272 F.Supp. 577, 600-603, aff.
4 Cir., 382 F.2d 294, cert. den. 390 U.S. 961, 88 S.Ct. 1062, 19 L.Ed.2d 1158.
. See, for a somewhat similar situation, involving waiver of counsel, United States v. Smith (C.C.A.4, 1964) 337 F.2d 49, 55, cert. den. 381 U.S. 916, 85 S.Ct. 1542, 14 L.Ed.2d 436.
. Cf., McCarthy v. United States (1969) supra (394 U.S. at p. 467, 89 S.Ct. at p. 1171, note 20), where the Court said that in all “inquiries” in connection with Rule 11, “ ‘matters of reality, and not mere ritual, should be controlling.’ ”
. United States v. Kniess (C.C.A.7 1959) 264 F.2d 353, 356.
. On right of Court to rely on representation of counsel under Rule 11 as it existed in 1959, and prior to McCarthy, see Munich v. United States (C.C.A.9, 1964) 337 F.2d 356, 360 (overruled on another point, Heiden v. United States (C.C.A.9, 1965) 353 F.2d 53, 55) ; Brown v. United States (C.C.A.8, 1950) 182 F.2d 933, 934; Merritt v. Hunter (C.C.A.10, 1948) 170 F.2d 739, 741; cf., Note 97 A.L.R. 2d 556; United States v. Shepherd (D.C.N.H. 1952) 108 F.Supp. 721. There was, however, some difference in the decisions on this point and it was in part to eliminate the controversy that the amendment of 1966 was adopted. McCarthy v. United States, supra, (394 U.S. at pp. 465-466, 89 S.Ct. 1166) ; Castro v. United States (C.C.A.9, 1968) 396 F.2d 345, 346.
. See Taylor v. United States (C.C.A.9, 1950) 182 F.2d 473, 475, cert. den. 340 U.S. 836, 71 S.Ct. 20, 95 L.Ed. 614, in which the Court held that a defendant’s understanding of the nature of the charge against him might properly be inferred from statements made in his presence in court by his counsel, to which statements he did not dissent.
See, also, United States v. Moe Liss (C.C.A.2, 1939) 105 F.2d 144, 145.
. See, Mirra v. United States, supra (255 F.Supp. at p. 579).
. Sanders v. United States (1963) 373 U.S. 1, 15, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 10 L.Ed.2d 148.
. See, Kesel v. Reid (1960) 109 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 283 F.2d 365, 366, cert. denied 366 U.S. 921, 81 S.Ct. 1097, 6 L.Ed. 2d 244; United States v. Sehon Chinn (D.C.W.Va. 1947) 74 F.Supp. 189, 191, aff. 4 Cir., 163 F.2d 876; United States ex rel. Grays v. Rundle (D.C.Pa. 1968) 293 F.Supp. 643, 646.
Reference
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- James Woodrow DEESE, Movant v. United States
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