Jackson v. Swenson

267 F. Supp. 681, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8342
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedMay 15, 1967
DocketNo. 1188
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 267 F. Supp. 681 (Jackson v. Swenson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson v. Swenson, 267 F. Supp. 681, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8342 (W.D. Mo. 1967).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHN W. OLIVER, District Judge.

This is a state prisoner habeas corpus case. The preliminary question of whether petitioner has exhausted available state court remedies is presented. On April 20, 1967, in order to obtain full information concerning petitioner’s past postconviction efforts, we ordered that “petitioner promptly file copies of any and all motions and other legal documents that he contends that he filed in any court in connection with his present confinement” and that “respondent attach as exhibits to his response * * * copies of all appropriate documents and orders entered by the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, Missouri, and the Supreme Court of Missouri.” The parties have done so.

From those sources we now have before us sufficient data upon which to determine whether we should presently exercise jurisdiction. Our review of the multiple postconviction proceedings filed and processed in two Circuit Courts of Missouri, two Missouri appellate courts, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, and the earlier habeas petition filed in this Court establishes that, in spite of all that judicial activity, petitioner has not exhausted available state remedies. His second habeas petition filed in this Court should and will be dismissed without prejudice in order to afford him an opportunity so to do.

I.

Petitioner alleges in his second federal habeas petition that he was sentenced as an habitual criminal and that the state sentence under which he is now in custody is void because a prior federal conviction was in fact used as a base for the imposition of that sentence under the Missouri Habitual Criminal Act. Petitioner’s attack is primarily directed against a 1955 sentence imposed by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Court and other records, the authenticity of which are admitted by the petitioner, establish that petitioner’s prior federal sentence was not used as a prior conviction for sentencing under the Missouri Habitual Criminal Act. Petitioner was not in fact sentenced under that Act.

Petitioner was arraigned in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, Missouri, on December 12, 1960 on an information charging armed robbery. An information dated December 8, 1960 did allege that petitioner had pleaded guilty to robbery second degree in the State of Kansas on August 4, 1958, but no mention was made of any prior federal conviction. That information was read in open court at the time petitioner entered a plea of not guilty (December 12, 1960 Transcript in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, Missouri, pp. 3-4).

At the time petitioner entered a plea of guilty on February 14, 1961, an information dated January 30, 1961 had been filed that date. The second information omitted any reference to the prior Kansas conviction and, like the first information, did not mention any prior federal conviction. The data before us is not entirely clear in regard to which information petitioner’s plea of guilty was accepted. It is not necessary to resolve that question because neither contained any allegation concerning any prior federal conviction and because sentence was not in fact imposed under the Missouri Habitual Criminal Act.

[683]*683Page 5 of the transcript of February 14, 1961 shows that before sentence was imposed the state trial judge asked defendant : “Do you know of any legal reason why the Court should not pronounce judgment at this time?” It was after that question was asked that defendant advised the judge that he had but one previous felony conviction, explaining that such felony involved a robbery of a service station in Kansas (pp. 7-8 of said transcript). When the court inquired “Do you have a federal conviction?” the petitioner responded:

MR. JACKSON: Yes, sir, that was on a juvenile delinquent, that was no felony. I was caught riding in a stolen car. Went across the State line. (p. 8 of said transcript).

In the course of imposing a 20 year sentence, the state trial judge commented: “With your past record and these two charges here, that [a 20 year sentence] is the best in good conscience, that I could do on the matter; so, on your plea of ‘guilty,’ Mr. Jackson, the Court now sentences you to 20 years in the Department of Corrections.” (p. 9 of said transcript).

It is obvious that the “two charges” to which the state trial judge referred were the charge in Case No. 3206, involving the armed robbery in which the sentence petitioner is now serving was imposed, and the other pending charge in Case No. 3214, which involved a charge of escaping jail, to which the petitioner immediately entered a plea of guilty, on which the state trial judge imposed a two year concurrent sentence.

II.

Petitioner’s efforts to obtain postconviction relief illustrate the course taken by many other inmates of state correctional institutions prior to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963); Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963); and Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963).

On October 14, 1961 a habeas corpus hearing at which petitioner was represented by counsel was heard in the Circuit Court of Cole County, Missouri. That petition was denied on October 16, 1961 without the state trial judge making any findings of fact or stating any conclusions of law. The federal question of effective assistance of counsel apparently was litigated and decided. Further proceedings in that court reflect that a petition for mandamus filed October 25, 1961 was denied November 3, 1961. A motion for a copy of the habeas corpus proceeding in the Circuit Court of Cole County was filed November 20, 1961 and denied November 24, 1961.

On October 25, 1961 petitioner filed a motion in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, Missouri, for leave to withdraw his plea of guilty pursuant to Rule 27.25 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Missouri, Y.A.M.R. That motion alleged newly discovered evidence (attaching a copy of what was allegedly a confession signed by one Jerry Lapsworth to the crime for which petitioner was sentenced) ; alleged that petitioner had not been given effective assistance of counsel; and alleged that he had been subjected to violent treatment in violation of Section 558.360, Revised Statutes of Missouri, which allegedly forced petitioner to enter a plea of guilty. In another pro se pleading filed November 8, 1961 in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, petitioner alleged that there was no evidence that he was guilty of the crime and that the victim of the robbery, petitioner’s father, “has consistently indicated that he would not testify in this cause or involve the defendant [movant] in any way as a participant in the robbery in question.”

The Circuit Judge of Lafayette County appointed counsel to represent petitioner on December 29, 1961, and a hearing was held on March 21, 1962, after which petitioner’s motion was denied. No findings of fact or conclusions of law were made of record by the state trial judge. Nor did the petitioner immediately appeal to the Supreme Court of Missouri. [684]

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Bluebook (online)
267 F. Supp. 681, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-v-swenson-mowd-1967.