Adamson v. Nash

218 F. Supp. 841, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7545
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedJune 24, 1963
DocketNo. 14418-1
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 218 F. Supp. 841 (Adamson v. Nash) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adamson v. Nash, 218 F. Supp. 841, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7545 (W.D. Mo. 1963).

Opinion

JOHN W. OLIVER, District Judge.

Petitioner, presently an inmate in the Missouri State Penitentiary, has filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, asking leave to proceed in forma pauperis. Petitioner alleges in conclusory language that the ten year sentence imposed by the Circuit Court of Audrain County, Missouri, after a trial before a jury, was “obtained and rests upon substantial material violations of the Constitutional Rights of the Petitioner”.

Elsewhere in the petition it is alleged, again in conclusory language, that petitioner, is being deprived of his liberty “in violation of the ‘due process of law’ clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States” in that it was the result of an “ex post facto application of RSMo 1959, Section 556.280, as Amended [V.A.M.S.]”; in that the “conviction and sentence [was] rendered by a Court of the State of Missouri which totally lacked proper jurisdiction * * * because the Information * * * fatally fails to aver the essential elements of any violation of criminal law, or any act done against the public interest”; because his “conviction and sentence [was] obtained by means of the use by the State of untrue and false testimony, knowingly adduced by the agents of the State; and further, because of the suppression by the State of the true facts which were favorable to this petitioner”.

By reading from all four corners of petitioner’s pleadings, including various exhibits attached as an appendix, it is apparent that he complains principally about the application of Section 556.280, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., to his case and about the alleged failure of the information to comply with the law of Missouri. Petitioner also complains about the treatment given certain testimony- by both the trial court and the Supreme Court of Missouri. The first two questions do not, under the facts alleged and apparent from the record, present any substantial federal question. The question concerning the evidence was fully and fairly dealt with by the Supreme Court of Missouri on petitioner’s appeal to that Court as is apparent from the report in petitioner’s appeal, reported as State v. Adamson, (S.Ct.Mo.1961) 346 S.W.2d 85. The appeal of petitioner’s codefendant, reported as State v. Gillman (S.Ct.Mo.1962), 354 S.W.2d 843, is not considered as a part of petitioner’s record in this case but it reflects similar care on the part of the Supreme Court of Missouri in regard to the tidal in which petitioner was convicted. It is frivolous to contend that even a colorable federal question is raised by the allegations of petitioner’s complaint in regard to that procedure followed by the State of Missouri.

The point of beginning in this, as in all habeas corpus cases, is Chapter 153 of Title 28 United States Code. The history of Sections 2241 to 2254 of that chapter has been definitely stated in the recent case of Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963). That case noted that the “development of the law of federal habeas corpus has been attended, seemingly, with some backing and filling” but it noted that “the possibly grudging scope given the Great Writ” has been overshadowed by the cases, over the years, that have recognized that vindication of due process is the historic office of that ancient writ. But to say that Noia’s case is in the broad spirit of Bushell’s case is not to say that the logic of the almost three hundred years of procedural experience with habeas corpus between those two cases is either invalid or that it is today to be ignored. On the contrary, logic and experience is consistent when one views the best of the history of the Great Writ.

In spite of what may have been said in some of the dissenting opinions in Noia, that case made clear, at least to us, that the Supreme Court’s “decision * * * swings open no prison gates”. Nor, of course, did it shut any prison gates. The Supreme Court recognized that “[t]oday as always few indeed is the number of state prisoners who eventually win their freedom by means of federal habeas corpus” and that “[t] hose few * * * are [843]*843persons whom society has grievously wronged”.

Noia, dealing with a quite narrow question, reconsidered the procedural rule established by Darr v. Buford, 339 U.S. 200, 70 S.Ct. 587, 94 L.Ed. 761 (1950). It must be remembered that in the Noia case, on the merits, it was “conceded [that Noia had] been the victim of unconstitutional state action” [1. c. 441 of 372 U.S., 1. c. 850 of 83 S.Ct., 9 L.Ed.2d 837]. Specifically, and it is of primary importance, the state conviction was “admitted by the State to rest upon a confession obtained * * * in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment” of the Constitution of the United States [1. c. 394 of 372 U.S., 1. c. 825 of 83 S.Ct., 9 L.Ed.2d 837] Noia on the point there in issue is, of course, of paramount importance. On the merits of any particular case it has no real significance.

Section 2241, so far as state prisoners are concerned, confers power on the District Courts of the United States to entertain applications for and to grant writs of habeas corpus in connection with prisoners held in state custody “in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States”. Section 2243 provides that the judge entertaining an application for a writ of habeas corpus shall forthwith either (a) award the writ or (b) issue an order to show cause “unless it appears from the application that the applicant or person detained is not entitled thereto”.

In Burleson v. United States, W.D.Mo. 1962, 205 F.Supp. 331, we reviewed the history of Section 2255 of Title 28 United States Code, and noted the close historical relationship between that section relating to federal prisoners and the ancient habeas corpus practice. We there stated that: [1. c. 333 of 205 F.Supp.]

“Section 2255 was enacted for the purpose of correcting past abuses of then existing judicial procedure —not to create new ones. After a full review of its history, United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205, 219, 72 S.Ct. 263, 96 L.Ed. 232 (1952), held that Section 2255 ‘was passed at the instance of the Judicial Conference to meet practical difficulties that had arisen in administering the habeas corpus jurisdiction of the federal courts’.”

We further stated that [I. c. 335 of 205 F.Supp.]:

“Of course, a motion under Section 2255 ought not, any more than should a petition for habeas corpus, ‘be scrutinized with technical nicety’, Holiday v. Johnston, 313 U.S. 342, 350, 550, 61 S.Ct. 1015, 85 L.Ed. 1392 (1941). But it is one thing to follow that rule and quite another to entertain a Section 2255 motion and require the production of the prisoner at a hearing when such a motion, given the broadest sort of construction, fails to allege specific and detailed facts, which, if true, would entitle the petitioner to relief.”

And in Burns v. United States, W.D. Mo.1962, 210 F.Supp. 528, we had occasion to consider the post-sentence remedies in the nature of coram nobis.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Vasquez v. Vaughn
454 F. Supp. 194 (D. Delaware, 1978)
Application of Buccheri
431 P.2d 91 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1967)
Lovedahl v. North Carolina
242 F. Supp. 938 (E.D. North Carolina, 1965)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
218 F. Supp. 841, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7545, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adamson-v-nash-mowd-1963.