Gayes v. New York

332 U.S. 145, 67 S. Ct. 1711, 91 L. Ed. 1962, 1947 U.S. LEXIS 2026

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: June 23, 1947
• Docket: 405
• Status: Published

Opinions

Mr. Justice Frankfurter

announced the judgment of the Court in an opinion in which The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Reed and Mr. Justice Jackson join.

This is another case in which release is sought from confinement under a sentence by a State court following a plea of guilty, on a claim of a denial of due process of law through want of benefit of counsel.

The circumstances are these. On July 15, 1938, Gayes, then a lad of sixteen, was arraigned in the County Court of Monroe County, New York, upon an indictment charging burglary in the third degree and petty larceny. According to the record of conviction, he was asked, in accordance with the requirement of § 308 of the New York Code of Criminal Procedure, whether “he desired the aid of counsel,” and he answered “No.” ¹ Imposition of sentence was postponed to July 28. When on that day Gayes appeared for judgment, he was asked, again according to the requirements of New York law, whether “he had any legal cause to show why judgment should not be pronounced against him.” New York Code of Criminal Procedure § 480. And “no sufficient cause appearing,” the record continues, Gayes was committed to a New York State Vocational School to be dealt with there according to law. It appears from the facts before us that Gayes did not stay at this correctional institution as long as New York law would have authorized his detention. See New York Penal Law §§ 2184-a and 2189, in connection with § 407. For, on October 14, 1941, he pleaded guilty, in the County Court of Schenectady, New York, to a new charge of burglary in the third degree. The record of this latter proceeding does not indicate whether this time he was or was not represented by counsel. But no claim is made that this plea of guilty, or the sentence under it, has any infirmity for lack of legal assistance. Gayes’ claim is that he was sentenced as a second offender by the inclusion of the improper sentence to the vocational school in 1938.

In accordance with New York procedure, Gayes, pro se, filed in the County Court of Monroe County, New York, an application to vacate the judgment rendered against him in that court on July 28, 1938. He claimed that in the proceedings which led to that judgment he had not been informed of his “Constitutional Rights of Assistance of Counsel,” that he “could not have understood his rights to Counsel” and that “youths of the age of 16 years cannot Intelligently and Competently waive their rights.” Since, according to this claim, the first sentence was void, he challenged the validity of the sentence in 1941 because the length of the second sentence was partly based upon the 1938 conviction.

Upon this record, the county court denied the motion without opinion. As New York law then stood, no review could there be had of this determination. See People v. Gersewitz, 294 N. Y. 163, 61 N. E. 2d 427. This made the county court the highest court of the State of New York for purposes of our review. Canizio v. New York, 327 U. S. 82, 85. But see Chapter 706 of the New York Laws of 1947. We brought the case here, 329 U. S. 710, as one of a series, for further consideration of the circumstances under which the requirements of due process imply a duty to supply counsel to defendants in State prosecutions.

The guiding principles bearing on the general problem have been set forth in the opinion in Foster v. Illinois, just decided, ante, p. 134. Insofar as the facts of this case present a particular variant, they are controlled by our decision in Canizio v. New York, supra. We there held that whatever doubts may arise from the circumstances of a plea of guilty, if, before sentence is imposed, the opportunities required by the Constitution for meeting the legal implications of the plea are satisfied, the sentence must stand. And so, the questions that may be raised regarding the circumstances attending the imposition of Gayes’ commitment to the vocational institution in 1938 are not now open. Gayes is complaining of his sentence following his plea of guilty in 1941.² What he wants is to be relieved of his imprisonment under that sentence. That sentence, to be sure, partly took into account his earlier sentence in 1938. But upon his subsequent sentence, as a second offender, in 1941, he had full opportunity, so far as appears, to contest whatever infirmity he may have claimed in the earlier sentence when the fact of that sentence was included in the sentence which he is now serving.³ Since the process leading up to the second sentence is not challenged he cannot now, so far as the United States Constitution is concerned, by a flank attack, challenge the sentence of 1938.

Judgment affirmed.

Mr. Justice Burton concurs in the result.

1 Subsequent to the proceedings before the County Court of Monroe now under review, the minutes of the original proceedings against Gayes came to light. By stipulation of counsel these minutes are here. According to them, the precise question put to Gayes by the Assistant District Attorney in the presence of the Judge was, “Do you need a lawyer before you enter á plea of guilty or not guilty to this indictment?” To which Gayes replied, “No, sir.”- It may be inconclusively debated whether if Gayes was asked “if he desired the aid of counsel,” as stated in the entry in the record of conviction, he was better informed of his rights, than if he was asked, “Do you need a lawyer?” In view of our disposition, the difference in significance becomes immaterial, and it is also immaterial whether, if there were a difference, we could consider, even in a case involving belated release from State detention, a matter not before the court whose judgment is here for review. But the differences that may exist between formal entry in the minutes of an acceptance of a plea and what was actually said contemporaneously lends force to the caution frequently expressed that every intendment must be made in support of the due observance of law in the rendering of judgments which are collaterally attacked, often after a considerable passage of time.

2 Gayes is detained under the 1941 sentence imposed by the County Court of Schenectady. A motion attacking that sentence would, under New York law, have to be made in that court. What he is asking is the invalidation of the prior sentence, underlying as it were the Schenectady sentence, presumably as a first step in getting relief from detention under the latter sentence. We are treating this proceeding, for our purposes, as one seeking, in effect, relief from the 1941 sentence without regard to formal distinctions which might otherwise be relevant.

3 According to the State, Gayes could have raised the claim he now makes against the 1938 conviction at the time he was sentenced in 1941, and from a denial of relief could have appealed to the higher courts. This was not contradicted by the petitioner and is not brought into question in any opinion of the higher courts of New York. It has been ruled in courts of very limited authority that a second offender cannot apply for resentence on a claim that there was a defect in the first sentence imposed by another court. See People v. Keller, 37 N. Y. S. 2d 61 (Gen. Sess. N. Y. County), and People v. Paterno, 182 Misc. 491, 50 N. Y. S. 2d 713 (Chatauqua County Court). Neither case, however, presented the claim that a violation of the United States Constitution vitiated the first sentence, and neither case raised the power of the court at the time of sentencing to consider such a claim. It is certainly within the power of a duly advised defendant, before pleading guilty as a second offender, to raise the constitutional invalidity of the first sentence so as to secure opportunity appropriately to challenge such invalidity. Nothing that is herein decided precludes petitioner from raising a denial of his constitutional right upon a record that discloses circumstances other than those before us. An order on such a motion is now reviewable by the New York Supreme Court and in certain instances by the New York Court of Appeals.