Chatfield v. Richards

739 F. Supp. 1262, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8448, 1990 WL 93868
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedJuly 5, 1990
DocketCiv. No. S 90-157
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 739 F. Supp. 1262 (Chatfield v. Richards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chatfield v. Richards, 739 F. Supp. 1262, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8448, 1990 WL 93868 (N.D. Ind. 1990).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ALLEN SHARP, Chief Judge.

I.

On April 11, 1990, pro se petitioner, James Allen Chatfield, an inmate at Indiana’s Westville Correctional Center, filed a petition seeking relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The return filed on May 14, 1990, demonstrates the necessary compliance with Lewis v. Faulkner, 689 F.2d 100 (7th Cir.1982).

The petitioner entered a plea of guilty in the Huntington Circuit Court, Huntington, Indiana, on March 13, 1989 for the offense of armed robbery. He was sentenced to a term of 10 years in prison. No appeal of that conviction has been prosecuted and no post-conviction remedies have been sought. Both appellate and post-conviction remedies are readily available.

It is basic and elementary under Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982), Duckworth v. Serrano, 454 U.S. 1, 102 S.Ct. 18, 70 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981), and Varnell v. Young, 839 F.2d 1245 (7th Cir.1988), that as a prerequisite to seeking relief under § 2254, available state remedies must be exhausted. Recently, Justice Scalia, speaking for the Supreme Court of the United States in Castille v. Peoples, 489 U.S. 346, 109 S.Ct. 1056, 103 L.Ed.2d 380 (1989), reaffirmed the same in no uncertain terms. Since there are readily available remedies being pursued, they must be exhausted.

Once again, an inmate incarcerated at the Westville Correctional Center is involved in a misguided attempt to assert that the State of Indiana’s failure to charge him by way of a grand jury indictment in some way provides a basis for relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The statute being challenged by the petitioner is Indiana Code § 35-34-1-1, which provides in relevant part that “any crime may be charged by indictment or information.” Therefore, by statute, Indiana may choose its method of prosecution, and in the petitioner’s case, it chose to prosecute by information rather than by indictment.1

II.

The petitioner contends that Indiana Code § 35-34-1-1 is contrary to the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. In the most categorical terms, it is not. The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States provides:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger....

It is historically elementary that the provisions of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States were originally designed to be applicable only as against the government of the United States and not the individual states. However, in the twentieth century, the Supreme Court of the United States engaged in a far reaching but limited incorporation of some but not all of the provisions of the Bill of Rights into the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and to make the same applicable to the states. Nevertheless, it is well established that the [1264]*1264constitutional requirement for use of a grand jury in felony cases applies only to prosecutions by the Federal Government and does not apply to state prosecutions. Hurtado v. California, 110 U.S. 516, 4 S.Ct. 111, 28 L.Ed. 232 (1884). See also Beck v. Washington, 369 U.S. 541, 82 S.Ct. 955, 8 L.Ed.2d 98 (1962), and Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. 625, 92 S.Ct. 1221, 31 L.Ed.2d 536 (1972).

III.

The petitioner also cites Art. IV, § 2, cl. 1 as authority for his argument. This court has carefully reviewed the history, purpose, and case authorities with regard to Art. IV, § 2, cl. 1 of the Constitution of the United States, which provides:

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.2

The opinion of Justice Bushrod Washington, sitting on Circuit, remains a classic exposition of the Privileges and Immunities Clause.

The next question is, whether this act infringes that section of the constitution which declares that 'the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states?’ The inquiry is, what are the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states? We feel no hesitation in confining these expressions to those privileges and immunities which are, in their nature, fundamental; which belong, of right, to the citizens of all free governments; and which have, at all times, been enjoyed by the citizens of the several states which compose this Union, from the time of their becoming free, independent, and sovereign. What those fundamental principles are, it would perhaps be more tedious than difficult to enumerate. They may, however, be all comprehended under the following general heads: Protection by the government; the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right to acquire and possess property of every kind, and to pursue and obtain happiness and safety; subject nevertheless to such restraints as the government may justly prescribe for the general good of the whole. The right of a citizen of one state to pass through, or to reside in any other state, for purposes of trade, agriculture, professional pursuits, or otherwise; to claim the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; to institute and maintain actions of any kind in the courts of the state; to take, hold and dispose of property, either real or personal; and an exemption from higher taxes or impositions than are paid by the other citizens of the state; may be mentioned as some of the particular privileges and immunities of citizens, which are clearly embraced by the general description of privileges deemed to be fundamental: to which may be added, the elective franchise, as regulated and established by the laws or constitution of the state in which it is to be exercised. These, and many others which might be mentioned, are, strictly speaking, privileges and immunities, and the enjoyment of them by the citizens of each state, in every other state, was manifestly calculated (to use the expressions of the preamble of the corresponding provision in the old articles of confederation) ‘the better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different states of the Union.’ Corfield v. Coryell, 6 F.Cas. 546, 551 (C.C.E.D.Pa. 1823 (No. 3,230)).

There is not a single case under either the Privileges and Immunities clause in Art. IV, § 2, cl. 1 or The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States that creates a right

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Bluebook (online)
739 F. Supp. 1262, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8448, 1990 WL 93868, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chatfield-v-richards-innd-1990.