Jones v. State

456 S.W.2d 860, 3 Tenn. Crim. App. 8, 1970 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 375
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee·Decided April 14, 1970·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

OPINION

MITCHELL, Judge.

The petitioner, George Monroe Jones, has appealed the dismissal without an evidentiary hearing of his petition for post-conviction and habeas corpus relief from the Criminal Court of Davidson County, Tennessee, Honorable Raymond H. Leathers, Judge presiding.

[10]*10The petitioner filed his petition in the Criminal Court of Davidson County, June 26, 1969, under the provisions of T.C.A. § 40-3802, Post-Conviction Procedure and under T.C.A. § 23-1801 for writ of habeas corpus.

He alleged he was found guilty in the Criminal Court of Davidson County, March 15, 1962, and sentenced to ten years imprisonment for burglary, and sentenced to life imprisonment as an habitual criminal, and that he is unlawfully restrained of his liberty by these sentences in violation of his constitutional rights. The trial court dismissed the petition without an evidentiary hearing and without appointing an attorney for petitioner, from which petitioner appealed.

Able counsel for the petitioner has somewhat clarified and summarized the various charges, allegations, and statements of the petition into five separate paragraphs for convenience.

The Attorney General in his excellent brief has pointed out the petitioner’s failure to comply with T.C.A. § 40-3804, Item 8 which requires him to state any appeals and other applications for relief previously filed, including date decided, the court, the grounds and the result, names of lawyers who represented petitioner and at what stage of the proceedings. In his petition he says this is the third application for writ in the courts of Tennessee, that he had previously filed two petitions or applications.

The trial judge’s order or memorandum recites that petitioner was convicted of being an habitual criminal on March 15, 1962, as shown in Minute Book 57, page 323, Division Two of the Criminal Court, appealed to [11]*11Supreme Court and affirmed Dec. 17, 1963. He was again convicted of being an habitual criminal in the same court May 21, 1963, which is shown in Minute Book 59, page 174, appealed and affirmed October 12, 1964. The trial judge says this is the fourth pleading he has filed.

The trial judge declared George Monroe Jones’s first petition was filed in the 3rd Circuit Court of Davidson County and was denied. The second was filed in Division Two of the Criminal Court being Docket No. 1618, dismissed November 20, 1964, appealed and affirmed March 4, 1965. The third was filed by petitioner denominated petition for a new trial on newly discovered evidence filed October 10, 1968, and dismissed and then he filed the present petition.

He has filed at least three petitions in the U. S. District Court.

Ground 1, the petitioner alleged his conviction for being an habitual criminal is void because one of the convictions upon which the determination was made is void. That petitioner’s conviction of May 6, 1943, is void because he was not represented by counsel and did not waive his right to counsel at the trial.

Responding to his first ground for relief we agree with the Attorney General’s brief that if the conviction of May 6, 1943, is void there were more than enough other convictions to sustain the conviction as an habitual criminal.

Ground 2, on this ground petitioner contends his conviction for being an habitual criminal is void since one of the convictions upon which it is based is void. A [12]*12conviction on October 4, 1955, for burglary is void because petitioner was denied appellate review.

Apparently the petitioner has overlooked the fact that the permanently bound volumes of the Tennessee Supreme Court reports show that his conviction of October, 1955, was appealed, reviewed, and affirmed, and reported in 200 Tenn. 553, 292 S.W.2d 767, under the style, George M. (Buck) Jones, plaintiff in error, v. State of Tennessee, on a conviction of burglary of a food locker, in which he was represented by Attorney Z. T. Osborn.

Grounds 3 and 4 are similar and are related and will be considered together. In these grounds the petitioner contends he was denied a fair trial when the District Attorney advised the jury that three co-defendants had signed confessions implicating the petitioner while these three co-defendants did not take the witness stand to be cross-examined, all of which violated the petitioner’s right to face his accusers. That he was denied a fair trial when the District Attorney advised the jury that the three co-defendants entered pleas of guilty in the case, all of which prejudiced the jury.

The petitioner’s contention is that he was denied a fair trial because three co-defendants gave written confessions implicating him, and did not take the witness stand to be cross-examined, but the opinion of the late Mr. Justice Andrew O. Holmes in the unreported case of George Monroe (Buck) Jones v. State, filed June 4, 1963, of which we take judicial knowledge is to the contrary.

In that case Honorable W. C. Wilson, attorney of [13]*13Nashville, a lawyer of recognized legal ability was counsel for Mr. Jones.

The opinion in the case recited that about 1:30 A.M. September 25, 1961, the burglar alarm of the Nashville Surgical Supply Company was set off. Police officers entered the building and discovered a hole about two feet in diameter had been cut through the wall. A pick axe and other tools were found in the building near the hole. The defendant (Jones) testified and one of the men with him who pleaded guilty testified in behalf of the defendant. Their testimony was that the other three men had gained entrance to the Nashville Surgical Supply Company building by knocking a hole in the wall. Inside they discovered the safe was wired with a burglar alarm. At that time the defendant (Jones) was in a tavern about a block away.

George Monroe Jones testified as follows:

“Well, he asked me if I would go up there and show him how — , to look at those wires on that safe; if I knew anything about it, that he would give me a large percentage of the money, and we stood there and talked about it for several minutes and finally I agreed to go with him.”

The police arrived shortly after defendant Jones entered the building. The opinion continued as follows:

“The defendant was indicted on two counts, one for burglary and the other as an habitual criminal. The second count, charging the defendant with being an habitual criminal, set forth that he had been previously convicted in the Criminal Court of Davidson [14]*14County on February 24, 1942 of the crime of robbery, on June 26, 1942 of the crime of robbery, on May 6, 1943, he was convicted of grand larceny, and on October 6, 1955 of burglary in the third degree. The records of these prior convictions were introduced in evidence at the trial pursuant to T.C.A. 40-2804.

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Jones v. State, 456 S.W.2d 860, 3 Tenn. Crim. App. 8, 1970 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 375 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1970).

456 S.W.2d 860 (Jones v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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