Holland v. Gladden

396 P.2d 222, 239 Or. 57, 1964 Ore. LEXIS 483
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 4, 1964
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 396 P.2d 222 (Holland v. Gladden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holland v. Gladden, 396 P.2d 222, 239 Or. 57, 1964 Ore. LEXIS 483 (Or. 1964).

Opinion

ROSSMAN J.

This is an appeal by Paul Courter Holland, plaintiff, from a judgment order of the circuit court which dismissed his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The defendant is the Warden of the Oregon State Penitentiary. The plaintiff is an inmate of that institution. The complaint challenges the validity of his imprisonment by alleging:

“That the cause or pretence [sic] of such imprisonment and restraint according to the best knowledge and belief of your petitioner, is an order as amended by a Nunc Pro Tune Order, State of Oregon, Plaintiff vs Paul Courter Holland, Defendant, Case No. 4930, In the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon In and For the County of Coos, signed by Robert C. Belloni, Circuit Judge, on the 6th day of April 1962 * * *.
“That said imprisonment and restraint are illegal, void and a nullity being obtained by coercion.
“That your petitioner on September 7, 1960 was sentenced to 20 years for the crime of rape (Coos County Case No. 4930) and to 5 years for the crime of burglary (Coos County Case No. 4931), sentences to run consecutively and that on September 12, 1961, the sentence for rape was declared void and petitioner ordered for resentencing by the Marion County Circuit Court in Case No. 50218.”

[59]*59It will be noticed that two judgments of guilt have been entered against the prisoner. One of them adjudged him guilty of the crime of rape and sentenced him to a term of twenty years. The other found him guilty of the crime of burglary and imposed a sentence of five years. The sentences, according to the plaintiff’s averments, were ordered “to run consecutively.” Both sentences were imposed, so the complaint avers, by Judge Robert C. Belloni of the circuit court and on the same day.

Although the complaint charges that the plaintiff’s “imprisonment and restraint are illegal, void and a nullity being obtained by coercion,” it alleges no facts or details unless the following are of that kind: (1) the plaintiff’s incarceration by the defendant is not due to any action by any “court of the United States or by any court or order of competent jurisdiction,” (2) the “detention is unlawful and in violation to his rights guaranteed him by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Oregon,” (3) the “petitioner has lost no good time through his misconduct and that by virtue of president [sic] set by this institution, the good conduct term for the conviction of burglary of your petitioner did end on December 24, 1963, according to the provisions as set forth in Chapt. 421 Section 120 Paragraphs (B) and (C),” and (4) “Petitioner’s petitions to the U. S. District Court have been dismissed without prejudice in orders Dated December 16,1963 and January 14, 1964.”

A supplemental abstract of record filed by the warden and which the prisoner does not challenge, alludes to the facts developed by the complaints and supplements them. Before quoting them we take note that the supplemental abstract refers to the rape case [60]*60as “Case No. 4930,” and to the burglary case as “Case No. 4931.” An order entered by the circuit court for Coos County September 8, 1960, in “Case No. 4931” (burglary case) and quoted in the supplementary abstract of record directs that Holland (defendant in that case) be “kept a prisoner for a maximum period of five years, the imprisonment on said sentence to commence at the expiration of the sentence pronounced in Case No. 4930.” The supplemental abstract of record quotes from an order entered in “Case No. 4930” (rape case) as follows:

“It is hereby ordered and adjudged that the defendant, Paul Courier Holland, be and he hereby is sentenced to serve twenty years as a prisoner * * *
* * #
“It is further ordered and adjuged that it is the intent of this Judge that sentence imposed in this case be completed before the sentence imposed by this Court in Case No. 4931 commence.”

The Nunc Pro Tunc order to which the complaint refers likewise directed that the two sentences should run consecutively and that service of the rape sentence should be completed before that imposed upon the burglary charge should commence.

Although the two judgments of conviction above mentioned have been before this court twice previously, Holland v. Strawn, 233 Or 64, 377 P2d 1, and Holland v. Gladden, 229 Or 573, 368 P2d 331, the plaintiff (Holland) has not challenged their parts which direct that the sentences should run consecutively and that service of the rape sentence should be completed before that imposed under the burglary charge would begin. No contention is made that those parts of the judgments are irregular or violative of any rights of the [61]*61plaintiff. The sentencing court is authorized to make provisions of the kind just mentioned, 24B Criminal Law §§ 1996 (1) and 1996 (2) pages 659 and 661, and 15 Am Jur., Criminal Law § 464 and 465, pages 121 and 123.

Since Judge Belloni was authorized to direct that the twenty year sentence should be served before service of the five year sentence began and since the prisoner makes no claim that he has completed service of the twenty year sentence, the petition for his release cannot be granted unless the twenty year sentence is a nullity. It will be recalled that the prisoner’s complaint terms his imprisonment “a nullity.” It says, “On September 12, 1961, the sentence for rape was declared void and petitioner ordered for resentencing by the Marion County Circuit Court in Case No. 50218.”

Those being the contentions that Holland submits, we proceed to determine whether the judgment entered in the rape case is a nullity. The charge that it was declared void is predicated largely upon facts that are recited in Holland v. Strawn, supra. Holland does not claim that the judgment of the circuit court which found him guilty of rape was ever vacated. In fact, the judgment of guilt was based upon his plea of guilty. But after the -sentence of twenty years had been imposed, Holland challenged it by a post-conviction remedy proceeding based upon the fact that before he was sentenced to the twenty year term he had not received the psychiatric examination authorized by ORS 137.112. The penalty had been imposed by the circuit court for Coos County. The post-conviction remedy proceeding was instituted in the circuit court for Marion County. The latter court held that the psychiatric examination is mandatory and vacated [62]*62the .sentence of twenty years; it ordered the circuit court for Coos County to direct that a psychiatric examination be given and that at its close Holland be resenteneed. Both the Warden and the prisoner appealed from that judgment. Later Holland withdrew his appeal and the order challenged by the Warden was affirmed in the decision above cited. When the cause was remanded to it, the circuit court for Coos County directed that the examination be given, and, when the psychiatrist’s report was received by the court it imposed the same .sentence that it had previously entered. Since the psychiatric examination authorized by OB.S 137.112 comes after, and not before, guilt is established, it seems reasonably clear that its bearing is upon the subsequent treatment which the convicted person shall receive and not upon the issue of his guilt.

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Bluebook (online)
396 P.2d 222, 239 Or. 57, 1964 Ore. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holland-v-gladden-or-1964.