Hodge v. Field

320 F. Supp. 775, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12772
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedOctober 15, 1968
DocketCiv. No. 68-1141
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 320 F. Supp. 775 (Hodge v. Field) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hodge v. Field, 320 F. Supp. 775, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12772 (C.D. Cal. 1968).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS AND MOTIONS FOR INJUNCTIONS

PREGERSON, District Judge.

This petition for a writ of habeas corpus was filed on July 15, 1968, with a supplement to the petition filed on July 24, 1968. Respondent has filed a return and petitioner filed a traverse to the return.

At the time this petition was filed, petitioner was in the custody of H. V. Field, Superintendent of the California Men’s Colony, West Facility, Los Padres, California, serving a sentence for two counts of violating California Penal Code § 470 (forgery) and one count of violating California Penal Code § 475a (possession of fraudulent document). He has recently been paroled and is presently in the constructive custody of the California Adult Authority, which has been joined as a respondent.

Petitioner alleges that the same matters as presented herein were presented to the California Supreme Court by way of a petition for habeas corpus. Therefore, it appears that petitioner has first presented the issues to the State courts and has satisfied the requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963); Schiers v. California, 333 F.2d 173 (9th Cir. 1964).

MOTIONS FOR INJUNCTIONS

Petitioner has requested that an injunction issue to prevent the State of California and all of its officers and agents from interfering with petitioner’s use of the mails and his prosecution of this petition. But petitioner has not stated any facts to support his contention that his mail is being interfered with, and it is the general rule that prison authorities can exercise reasonable measures to control the internal prison affairs. United States ex rel. Knight v. Ragen, 337 F.2d 425 (7th Cir. 1964). Without specific facts, this Court could not draft an injunction order to comply with Rule 65(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and this Court will hesitate to enjoin illegal interference with the mail, unless special circumstances or irreparable harm is shown. Cf. Pugach v. Dollinger, 277 F.2d 739 (2nd Cir. 1960), aff’d 365 U.S. 458, 81 S.Ct.. 650, 5 L.Ed.2d 678 (1961). These factors are not present here, however, for it is clear from the very volume of this petition that any alleged interference with petitioner’s mail rights has not been so serious as to prevent him from prosecuting this petition.

MOTION FOR THREE-JUDGE COURT

Petitioner has moved that a three judge court be convened under 28 U.S.C. § 2281 because the issues involve the constitutional validity of a State Statute. It is unclear from reading the petitioner’s materials what State statute is involved, but the petition contains a general attack on State “harmless error” rules, on the grounds that they are being used to dilute Constitutional rights. Yet petitioner has not stated any facts to show how the California harmless error rule has been applied to deny him of Constitutional rights. And in any case the harmless error rule is an accepted doctrine in the federal courts, having been approved by the United States Supreme Court and the Congress. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 61; Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 52(a). On its face the doctrine is not unconstitutional.

UNLAWFUL DETENTION

Petitioner raises a number of issues concerning the legality of his conviction. He claims that a letter, used by the prosecution as a sample of petitioner’s handwriting, was not properly authenticated to have been written by petitioner and therefore should not have been admitted into evidence. Also, he claims that the use of the letter against him constituted [778]*778a violation of his right against self-incrimination as guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Also, he claims that he allegedly wrote the letter while in jail (on a previous conviction) and did not have the benefit of counsel at that time, so that the use of the letter violates his right to counsel as guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments.

As far as the admissibility of the letter under California evidence law is concerned, this is primarily a question of State law and was argued before the California District Court of Appeal. On the question of authentication the Court of Appeal held that “There was evidence that this letter had been written by appellant while serving time as a prisoner in the Santa Clara County Jail.” Once a finding of fact has been made by the State courts, after a hearing, this Court must accept that finding unless the fact was not determined by a full, fair, and adequate hearing. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). The petition discloses no facts which indicate that the hearing on appeal was inadequate or unfair. Therefore, this Court will accept the determination of the State court on this matter.

As far as the Fifth Amendment is concerned, the letter was written by petitioner at his own free will, without coercion, and the letter was used for handwriting identification rather than as testimonial evidence. Therefore, there was no violation of petitioner’s right against self-incrimination. Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966).

As far as the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a right to counsel is concerned, the letter was written before the commission of the crimes for which petitioner has been convicted and it can hardly be said that the letter was writ-en and mailed at a critical stage in the gathering of the prosecution’s evidence. Cf. United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 227, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967).

Petitioner contends that there was perjury by certain witnesses. The general rule is that perjury at the trial does not constitute grounds for federal habeas corpus relief unless it is shown that the prosecutor knowingly used perjured testimony. London v. Oklahoma, 248 F.2d 788 (10th Cir. 1957). But apart from this rather restrictive rule, petitioner has presented nothing which shows as a matter of fact that any of the testimony at the trial was perjury. Petitioner alleges that the court had in its possession an affidavit of Patsy Jones which was intentionally destroyed in order to suppress the evidence of perjury. But examining the contents of the affidavit, it appears to be irrelevant and immaterial as to petitioner’s innocence or guilt, and does not state any facts from which perjury can be inferred.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hodge v. Field
435 F.2d 1309 (Ninth Circuit, 1970)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
320 F. Supp. 775, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12772, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hodge-v-field-cacd-1968.