Broadus-Bey v. United States

286 F. Supp. 659, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9134
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedJuly 16, 1968
DocketCiv. No. 16843
StatusPublished

This text of 286 F. Supp. 659 (Broadus-Bey v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Broadus-Bey v. United States, 286 F. Supp. 659, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9134 (D. Md. 1968).

Opinion

THOMSEN, Chief Judge.

Judson Broadus-Bey, formerly known as Judson Broadus, has filed a petition under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255, prepared with the advice of counsel, which the Fourth Circuit has held should be treated as a writ of error coram nobis, attacking the validity of his conviction and sentence in this Court in 1950, for violation of the narcotics laws. In his petition Broadus alleges that he was mentally incompetent to waive counsel and to plead guilty because he was a youth and a drug addict at the time.

Broadus, who was then twenty-six years old, was arraigned before Chief Judge Coleman of this Court on April 25, 1950, under an indictment charging violation of the narcotics laws. He entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to a term of four-and-a-half years. He was sent to Lexington, and was released on parole after having served a part of his sentence.

In 1954 he was charged with another violation of the narcotics laws, this time in the District of Columbia. Represented by an attorney, he entered a guilty plea, was sentenced as a second offender to a term of two to seven years, and was again sent to Lexington.

While in Lexington Broadus filed a petition under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 in the District of Columbia, which was denied. He then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Eastern District of Kentucky, attacking his 1954 conviction and sentence. Relief was denied by the District Court and the decision was affirmed on appeal, with a full opinion. Broadus v. Lowry, 245 F.2d 304 (6 Cir. 1957). One of the grounds unsuccessfully relied on by Broadus in that case was a claim that he was mentally incompetent at the time of his arraignment and sentence in the District of Columbia. The Sixth Circuit likewise found no merit in his contention that he was deprived [660]*660of his constitutional rights because his attorney had advised him to enter a plea of guilty and admitted to the District Court in the presence of Broadus that Broadus had been convicted in the District of Maryland in 1950.

Broadus did not contend in the District of Kentucky or in the Sixth Circuit that he was mentally incompetent at the time he pleaded guilty in the District of Maryland, nor did he make any other attack on his conviction in this District, although, as noted above, he did contend that he was mentally incompetent at the time he entered his plea in the District of Columbia.

Thereafter, in December 1957, Broadus filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis in this Court, contending that his conviction and sentence in this Court in 1950 were invalid because he was deprived of his right to counsel. Relief was denied because it appeared from the original judgment and commitment that the Court had advised the defendant of his right to counsel and had asked him whether he desired to have counsel appointed by the Court, and that the defendant thereupon stated that he waived the right to the assistance of counsel. No appeal was taken from the order of this Court denying relief.

In a companion ease, involving one of the other defendants (Witherspoon), arraigned at the same time as Broadus, Judge Chesnut was furnished a transcript of the proceedings before Judge Coleman in 1950. It appears that the' same questions were asked Witherspoon that were asked Broadus, namely, “Have you a lawyer?” and “Do you wish one?”, to both of which Witherspoon, like Broadus, replied “No.” It was argued to Judge Chesnut that Witherspoon’s sentence should be vacated because it did not affirmatively appear from the stenographic transcript of the arraignment proceedings that the defendant had been expressly advised before pleading guilty that he was entitled to have counsel appointed by the Court without expense to him and that he was not expressly so advised. Judge Chesnut concluded that Witherspoon knew of his right to have counsel appointed and that under the circumstances the point was without merit. United States v. Witherspoon, 167 F. Supp. 297, 300 (D.C.1958). The Fourth Circuit affirmed Judge Chesnut’s opinion, Witherspoon v. United States, 264 F.2d 480 (4 Cir. 1959). Judge Northrop denied a subsequent petition by Witherspoon for the same reason, Civil No. 19470, May 7, 1968.

After Broadus had been released from confinement under his 1954 District of Columbia commitment, he was again charged with violation of the narcotics laws in the District of Columbia. He was found guilty on February 26, 1964, and was sentenced to a term of 10 years as a second offender, based upon the 1954-District of Columbia conviction. Broad-us-Bey and his counsel concede that his 1950 conviction in Maryland does not affect his present incarceration.

Other cases in D.C. against Broadus were pending when he filed his second petition in this Court in 1965. That petition was denied by this Court as repetitious, but on appeal the Fourth Circuit said:

“Judson Broadus-Bey seeks -to appeal in forma pauperis the denial of his petition which we treat as a writ of error coram nobis. The petition questions the validity of a 1950 narcotics violation which, although the sentence has been served, subjects him to greater punishment should he be convicted on a presently pending narcotics prosecution. His petition alleges that he was mentally incompetent to waive counsel and plead guilty because he was a youth and a drug addict at the time.
“An earlier petition had alleged denial of the benefit of counsel. This was dismissed on the basis of the records of the case which contained a recitation that he was advised by the court of his right to counsel and that he waived the right. The present petition was dismissed as repetitious.
“We think this disposition was erroneous. The petition raises an issue [661]*661not present when the earlier petition was summarily dismissed. The facts of this case are nearly identical to those in Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1 [83 S.Ct. 1068, 10 L.Ed.2d 148], where it was held that an evidentiary hearing should have been granted because the prior application was not fully adjudicated on the merits and the second application was predicated on facts outside the record.
“Leave to proceed in forma pauperis is granted. The case is remanded for further proceedings for the petitioner to establish, if he can, his incapacity to waive counsel in the 1950 trial. This disposition does not preclude the government from seeking to prove that failure to assert incompetency at the time of the first petition has resulted in an abuse of the remedy.”

Pursuant to the mandate of the Fourth Circuit this Court has held two hearings, at both of which Broadus-Bey, as he now calls himself, was represented by counsel of his own choosing.

Petitioner presses two points:

(1) that he was mentally incompetent to waive counsel and to plead guilty at the time of his arraignment in 1950;

(2) that he was denied his right to counsel in that he was not advised of his right to have counsel appointed for him.

The government denies both charges, and seeks dismissal on the ground that the case is moot.

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Related

Johnson v. Zerbst
304 U.S. 458 (Supreme Court, 1938)
Von Moltke v. Gillies
332 U.S. 708 (Supreme Court, 1948)
Carnley v. Cochran
369 U.S. 506 (Supreme Court, 1962)
Sanders v. United States
373 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Judson Broadus v. Dr. James v. Lowry
245 F.2d 304 (Sixth Circuit, 1957)
Alphonzo Edwards v. United States
256 F.2d 707 (D.C. Circuit, 1958)
Harvey E. Witherspoon v. United States
264 F.2d 480 (Fourth Circuit, 1959)
John Allen Starks v. United States
264 F.2d 797 (Fourth Circuit, 1959)
United States v. Alexander Henry Smith
337 F.2d 49 (Fourth Circuit, 1964)
Richard Sympol Townes, Jr. v. United States
371 F.2d 930 (Fourth Circuit, 1966)
Robert E. Green v. United States
383 F.2d 199 (D.C. Circuit, 1967)
United States v. Witherspoon
167 F. Supp. 297 (D. Maryland, 1958)

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Bluebook (online)
286 F. Supp. 659, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9134, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/broadus-bey-v-united-states-mdd-1968.