Gordon M. Allen, and v. B. J. Rhay, Superintendent of the Washington State Penitentiary, And

431 F.2d 1160
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 22, 1970
Docket24699_1
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 431 F.2d 1160 (Gordon M. Allen, and v. B. J. Rhay, Superintendent of the Washington State Penitentiary, And) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gordon M. Allen, and v. B. J. Rhay, Superintendent of the Washington State Penitentiary, And, 431 F.2d 1160 (9th Cir. 1970).

Opinion

JAMES M. CARTER, Circuit Judge:

Petitioner, serving time for a conviction in a state court of Washington in 1966 for the crime of robbery, petitions for his release by habeas corpus. The Supreme Court of Washington affirmed the conviction in State v. Allen (1967) 72 Wash.2d 42, 431 P.2d 593. Following an escape and conviction therefor he was adjudged an habitual criminal. Again the conviction was affirmed on appeal. State v. Allen, 75 Wash.2d 17, 448 P.2d 332 (1968).

On March 8, 1968, the Washington Supreme Court denied petitioner’s application for relief in habeas corpus in its cause No. 40087. This proceeding involved only the robbery conviction referred to above. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Allen v. Berry, 391 U.S. 924, 88 S.Ct. 1821, 20 L.Ed.2d 662 (1968).

Petitioner then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the district court below, case No. 3746, practically a word for word duplicate of No. 40087. The district court denied relief by a written memorandum without an eviden-tiary hearing. Petitioner does not contest the escape conviction resulting from the entry of a guilty plea. Petitioner’s contentions are as follows:

1. That the police refused to honor a request to contact counsel immediately after arrest.

2. That identification witnesses from the scene of the crime, were seated on benches in the corridor outside the courtroom as ■ petitioner was escorted handcuffed into the courtroom prior to an in-court line-up.

3. That the court permitted the jury to view an in-court line-up of the prosecution witnesses, but ordered that an in-court identification by defense witnesses be held in the absence of the jury.

4. That compulsory process for obtaining witnesses was denied, in that although a subpoena was issued for a de *1163 fense witness, the witness was late for the in-court line-up and the court refused a continuance.

5. That the court allowed the admission of pretrial line-up identification to bolster the courtroom identification.

6. That petitioner’s “counsel should have been notified and counsel’s presence required as a prerequisite to the out-of-court identification by picture, held prior to the out-of-court line-up.”

7. That the state trial court did not grant a hearing on a motion by petitioner for the dismissal of an habitual criminal information, which was based upon petitioner’s allegations that he was deprived of his right of appeal through the courts of the State of Washington “without being hampered from coercion from the prosecutor’s office.”

8. That the clerk of the Washington Supreme Court did not file or present to the court a motion made by petitioner for a writ of habeas corpus while the state court appeal was pending.

9. That copies of law material mailed to him by a friend outside the prison were not delivered to him while his appeal was pending.

The first six contentions are properly before us, having been raised in his ha-beas corpus proceeding No. 40087 to the Supreme Court of Washington. Contention No. 7 was raised in the same court in habeas corpus proceeding No. 39814, and denied. We consider it here.

Contention No. 8 was not presented to any state court. Petitioner so admits [Tr. p. 18]. Contention No. 9 was not presented to the state courts. Petitioner has not exhausted his State remedies, but the contention is easily disposed of. It consists of claims that petitioner did not receive copies of law material mailed to him and alleged to be needed in this habeas corpus proceeding below, No. 3746. An inspection as to what was alleged to be missing shows it to be a copy of pages 34, 35 and 36 from the case of Rabinowitz v. United States, 5 Cir., 366 F.2d 34. The ease involves questions of jury qualifications and has no bearing on petitioner’s claim below or in the cfrcuit. The contention is frivolous.

We proceed to consider petitioner’s first seven contentions in detail.

I.

We assume, for the purpose of decision, that the police refused to honor petitioner’s request for counsel after his arrest. He was advised of his right to counsel at his arraignment the following day, and stated he intended to employ counsel. Petitioner does not contend he ever made any statements or confessions or that any were ever used against him in his trial. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, was decided June 13, 1966, after petitioner’s trial that resulted in a conviction on April 8, 1966. Miranda does not apply retroactively. Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966). The refusal to hon- or petitioner’s request for counsel at his arrest, standing alone, is not a ground for relief.

Petitioner’s contentions are tied in with an out-of-court identification by photo, and an out-of-court line-up. These matters will be considered later herein.

Suffice it to say that United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967) and Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263, 87 S.Ct. 1951, 18 L.Ed.2d 1178 (1967) apply only to those cases and future eases after the date of those decisions. Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). Appellant was convicted in 1966.

Petitioner must then rely not on the bare fact of lack of counsel at a lineup, but upon whether as stated in Stovall v. Denno, supra, “ * * * the confrontation * * * was so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identity that he was deprived of due process of law.” (p. 301-302, 87 S,.Ct. p. 1972). The solution to this problem depends on “ * * * the totality of the circumstances surrounding *1164 * * * ” the confrontation, (p. 302, 87 S.Ct. p. 1972).

Petitioner then has a heavier burden than the mere showing of lack of counsel as in Wade and Gilbert.

II.

In the discussion of the following contentions of petitioner, it should be borne in mind that petitioner’s first trial, which commenced in November 1965, resulted in a conviction, but a new trial was granted. There is no contention that the motion for a new trial was granted because of any of the matters complained of in this habeas proceeding. The second trial, commenced in March 1966, resulted in the robbery conviction and the sentence that is under attack in this proceeding. The petition for the writ and petitioner’s brief is replete with reference to matters at the first trial.

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Bluebook (online)
431 F.2d 1160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gordon-m-allen-and-v-b-j-rhay-superintendent-of-the-washington-state-ca9-1970.