Herbert D. Hill and Selma Jo McIntosh v. Warden Ray H. Page and the State of Oklahoma

454 F.2d 679, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 6415

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• Decided: December 28, 1971
• Docket: 311-70
• Status: Published

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

This appeal concerns several related petitions for habeas corpus. The trial courts denied relief, and these appeals were taken. The claims of the two petitioners will be considered separately.

The petitioner, Selma Jo McIntosh, was convicted in the Oklahoma state court after being tried with a codefend-ant, the petitioner, Herbert D. Hill. The charge was grand larceny and each was sentenced on October 26, 1967, for a term of seven and one-half years in the state prison. This case was in Oklahoma County and was No. 33408.

Petitioner, Selma Jo McIntosh:

This petitioner with petitioner Hill filed a joint petition for habeas corpus relief in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. This was No. 69-125 in the United States District Court, and concerned only the state convictions in No. 33408 (see McIntosh v. State, Okl.Cr. App., 444 P.2d 224). This petition was later transferred to the Western District of Oklahoma where petitioner Hill had previously filed other applications for relief. When so transferred the petition became No. 69-402 and was there heard by the United States District Court.

In No. 69-402 the trial court held that petitioner McIntosh had not exhausted her state remedies. We agree with this conclusion reached by the trial court and the denial of relief to petitioner McIntosh is affirmed.

Petitioner, Herbert D. Hill:

This appeal brings to this court the action of the trial court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma in its No. 69-191 which was a proceeding to determine when the several state sentences which petitioner Hill had received were to commence. The issue basically was whether the sentences he had received at various times in the Oklahoma County cases Nos. 34094, 34095, and 33408 were to run concurrently.

The trial judge held that the matter was determined by the interpretation of state statutes which had been made by the Oklahoma state courts and where no federal constitutional question was raised. We agree, and the order of the trial court in No. 69-191 of the Eastern District of Oklahoma is affirmed. ■

Petitioner Hill also brings this appeal from the denial of relief by the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in its No. 69-402. This action had been transferred from the Eastern District where it was No. 69-125, and concerns state trial No. 33408. The trial court held that this petitioner had previously filed, and the court had acted upon, prior petitions for habeas corpus relief raising the same issues with but one exception. These prior proceedings in the Western District were Nos. 68-500 and 69-158. In No. 69-158 the trial court had passed upon petitioner’s claim relating to the search and seizure issue; the claim that the transcript was incomplete in petitioner’s direct appeal in that it did not include the examination of jurors and final arguments, and the claim of ineffective counsel. The record contains nothing to show that this action of the trial court was in any way incorrect.

The petitioner asserts that in his direct appeal to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals he did not have effective assistance of counsel because no brief was filed nor oral argument made on his behalf. This issue was before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in petitioner’s attempt to have an appeal out of time on the theory that he had none before. See Hill v. State, No. A-15232, Okla.Ct.Crim.Appeals, and Hill v. State, Okl.Cr.App., 444 P.2d 223. The trial court in No. 69-402 observed in its opinion that the state court, in No. A-15232 on petitioner’s request for an appeal out of time, had said:

“From a review of the previous proceedings filed by Petitioner with this Court we find his present contention to be without merit. We find that in fact an appeal of Petitioner’s conviction for grand larceny after former conviction of a felony was perfected to this Court with Mr. Red Ivey as attorney of record. Petitioner’s appeal, Case No. A-14,738, was perfected and the judgment and sentence affirmed in a decision rendered by this Court on July 17, 1968. A petition for rehearing was denied on July 31, 1968, and a second petition for rehearing was denied on September 17, 1968. Each of these pétitions for rehearing was filed by Petitioner’s attorney of record, Mr. Red Ivey. The mandate was issued on October 11, 1968. Hill v. State, Okl.Cr.App., 444 P.2d 223 (1968).”

The state court therein refers to the original appeal (No. 14738) of the seven and one-half year sentence given in the state trial in Case No. 33408, and thus considers the conviction with which we are here concerned and not with petitioner’s prior convictions. The United States trial court concluded that the contention that efforts of counsel were inadequate was without merit, and we agree. The record shows that the direct appeal in No. 33408 was taken by petitioner’s retained attorney, but, as was permitted, a brief was not filed and no oral argument was requested. The rules of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals then provided that under these circumstances the transcript of the trial and other records brought up on appeal would be examined for “fundamental error.” The appeal was complete except for the brief and argument, and the court made the examination of the record as indicated and affirmed the convictions. Petitioner’s attorney thereafter filed two petitions for rehearing containing points he wished considered, but they were denied. In our opinion the petitioner’s appeal as taken did not indicate ineffective assistance of counsel as urged, nor did it constitute a denial of the constitutional rights of petitioner. The procedure followed was not contrary to Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493, nor Entsmin-ger v. Iowa, 386 U.S. 748, 87 S.Ct. 1402, 18 L.Ed.2d 501.

It appears that both petitioners herein have filed several petitions for relief and the trial court among others considered the two petitions subscribed and sworn to on July 7, 1969, and the one subscribed and sworn to on October 7, 1969, and these are considered herein.

We have before us on this appeal in Case No. 69-402 of the Western District of Oklahoma (No. 69-125 in the Eastern District) only the conviction of petitioners, Hill and McIntosh in State No. 33408 in which they received a sentence for seven and one-half years. In the appeal in No. 69-191 from the Eastern District the several sentences in three cases were herein considered on the issue of their starting time.

Affirmed.