Gasaway v. Page

303 F. Supp. 391, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10303
District Court, N.D. Oklahoma·Decided August 11, 1969·No. Civ. No. 69-C-26·Published

Opinion

DAUGHERTY, District Judge.

ORDER

Petitioner seeks his release from Oklahoma state custody by way of Habeas Corpus. 28 U.S.C. § 2254. He was convicted, after jury trial, of the crime of manslaughter in the Tulsa County District Court and sentenced to imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for a term of twenty-five years. He alleges as grounds for his release that (1) he was not taken before the nearest magistrate without undue delay, (2) he was prosecuted by information rather than by grand jury indictment, and (3) a confession or incriminating statements made by him were illegally obtained by an officer of the Tulsa Police Department and used against him at his trial. The Respondents have submitted various documents relating to the trial of the Petitioner, and request this Court to rule herein on the basis of the submitted records. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).

It appears that the grounds presented herein by the Petitioner have been presented and determined adversely to him by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. Gasaway v. Page, 448 P.2d 284 (Okl.Cr.1968). The Court, therefore, concludes that Petitioner has exhausted his state remedies with respect to the grounds raised herein as set out above.

With respect to Petitioner’s first ground, there was a delay of one day in taking Petitioner before a magistrate. So much is alleged by the Petitioner. However, he makes no allegation that this delay in any way prejudiced him. The State has an obligation to take one accused of crime before a magistrate without unnecessary delay. 22 Okl.St.Ann. § 181. Nevertheless, in addition to showing delay, it is necessary to show prejudice by reason of the delay. Brown v. State, 384 P.2d 54 (Okl.Cr.1963). Petitioner has not alleged any prejudice by [392] reason of the delay and none appears from the files and records of the case. Petitioner’s first ground is, therefore, without merit as being legally insufficient to warrant attention. Martinez v. United States, 344 F.2d 325 (Tenth Cir. 1965) .

With respect to Petitioner’s second ground, there is no federal constitutional requirement that a person accused of crime by a state must be indicted by a grand jury rather than be proceeded against by an information. Prosecution on the basis of an information does not violate any provision of the United States Constitution. Hampton v. State of Oklahoma, 368 F.2d 9 (Tenth Cir. 1966) ; Orcutt v. Wyoming, 308 F.2d 61 (Tenth Cir. 1962).

With respect to the Petitioner’s third ground, relating to the use of a confession or incriminating statements of the Petitioner at his trial, the Court attempted without success to elicit from Petitioner the details concerning this allegation. The Petitioner responded to the Court’s Order for details in this respect in the following manner:

“During the course of the trial of the petitioner to the Charge of Murder, a Police Officer, of the Tulsa, Oklahoma Police Department, testified for the state, against the (defendant) petitioner, to an alleged conversation the officer had with the petitioner at the time of the petitioner’s arrest. This testimony was allowed before the jury and was the main ‘link in the chain of evidence’ against the petitioner.”

During the pendency of this Petition in this Court, the Tulsa County District Court ordered the preparation of a partial transcript containing all the testimony of all police officers who testified at Petitioner’s trial.1 This transcript has been submitted to the Court by the Respondents and the Court has read it in its entirety.

The transcript contains only two references to statements of the Petitioner. They are set out in the note below.2 Pe[393] titioner attempts to invoke the Miranda ruling (Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, 10 A.L.R.3d 974 (1966)) to claim that these statements were illegally obtained from him. But in that case the Supreme Court excepted this type of situation, where the confession or incriminating statement is blurted out, stating:

“Any statement given freely and voluntarily without any compelling influences is, of course, admissible in evidence. * * * There is no requirement that police stop a person who enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess a crime, or a person who calls the police to offer a confession or any other statement he desires to make. Volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the Fifth Amendment and their admissibility is not affected by our holding today.” 384 U.S. at p. 478, 86 S.Ct. at p. 1630, 16 L.Ed.2d at p. 726.

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Gasaway v. Page, 303 F. Supp. 391, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10303 (N.D. Okla. 1969).

303 F. Supp. 391 (Gasaway v. Page) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Miranda v. Arizona
384 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1966)
Arthur E. Orcutt v. State of Wyoming
308 F.2d 61 (Tenth Circuit, 1962)
Robert Lee Martinez v. United States
344 F.2d 325 (Tenth Circuit, 1965)
Jerry Denzil Davidson v. United States
371 F.2d 994 (Tenth Circuit, 1966)
Brown v. State
1963 OK CR 67 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1963)