Lester v. Peyton

303 F. Supp. 364, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10300
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Virginia
DecidedAugust 15, 1969
DocketCiv. A. No. 69-C-5-D
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 303 F. Supp. 364 (Lester v. Peyton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lester v. Peyton, 303 F. Supp. 364, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10300 (W.D. Va. 1969).

Opinion

[365]*365OPINION AND JUDGMENT

WIDENER, District Judge.

This opinion and order are on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed in forma pauperis under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 2241 by Cager J. Lester, a prisoner of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Petitioner is presently serving a 25-year sentence in the state penitentiary, following his conviction for robbery in the Circuit Court of Henry County on October 11, 1965. In the robbery trial, Lester was represented by two experienced and able attorneys of his own choosing whom he had employed. The transcript of the robbery trial is on file with the papers in this proceeding, as is the transcript in the State habeas corpus hearing, and both have been read in their entirety by the court.

Petitioner did not appeal the robbery conviction. Later, on August 26, 1966, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Circuit Court of Henry County, and on October 6, 1966, filed a separate petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

[366]*366In the prosecution of the two writs of habeas corpus, petitioner was represented by two court appointed attorneys. Both petitions for habeas corpus filed in the State courts were filed in forma pauperis. The Supreme Court of Appeals ordered the petition filed in that court remanded to the Circuit Court of Henry County for trial, and the two petitions were heard together, June 19, 1967.

The Circuit Court of Henry County denied the prayer of both petitions, and petitioner then filed petitions for writs of error in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, which were denied December 6, 1968. At this point, petitioner exhausted his state remedies and has thus complied with 28 U.S.C. § 2254, prior to filing a petition in this court. Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963).

This petition for habeas corpus was written by petitioner himself or by a layman. The contentions are summarized as follows:

First, that the Circuit Court of Henry County erred in not declaring a mistrial when a witness against Lester, a co-defendant, Martin, declared that he had known Lester since Lester was released from the penitentiary at Richmond. In fact, Lester had never been in the penitentiary at Richmond;

Second, that Martin was promised a suspended sentence in return for his having testified against Lester in the robbery trial;

Third, that Martin’s testimony in the robbery trial was perjured;

Fourth, that he was ineffectively represented by his counsel; and

Last, that since Lester was a federal parolee at the time of the robbery trial, the courts of the Commonwealth lacked jurisdiction to try him.

The contentions will be dealt with in the order named above.

In the robbery trial, a co-defendant, Martin, testified that he had known Lester since Lester was released from the penitentiary at Richmond.

The first contention is that the trial court erred in not declaring a mistrial on account of Martin’s testimony. The trial judge admonished the jury in part as follows: “It shall not and must not be considered by you and I emphatically instruct you and admonish you to wipe it completely from your minds.” Whether or not to grant mistrials in such instances is usually left to the trial court, but that need not be decided here because the contention of petitioner is without merit for he did not take advantage of the error, if any, by appeal and cannot use this proceeding as a substitute. Cunningham v. Hayes, 204 Va. 851, 134 S.E.2d 271 (1964).

The next contention of petitioner is that the witness Martin was induced to give testimony against him in the robbery trial on account of a promise of suspended sentence.

An affidavit of Martin appears in the record to the effect that Martin was promised a suspended sentence and that his evidence was false and untrue, based on the promise of a suspended sentence by “my counsel and the Commonwealth’s Attorney.” Martin also testified in behalf of petitioner in the habeas corpus hearing. Martin’s testimony does not corroborate his sworn statement. He testified that his attorney, one W. T. Combs, promised him a suspended sentence if he would testify against Lester, but he denied that the attorney for the Commonwealth said anything to him about a suspended sentence, and did not relate any promise in his version of a conversation with the Sheriff. Martin’s attorney, Mr. Combs, did not testify in the habeas corpus proceeding, and his absence was not explained by petitioner. Lester had advised the court that he had all of his witnesses present when the hearing began.

In order to sustain the second contention of petitioner, the court would have to rely on the written statement of a self-confessed perjurer whose own oral testimony contradicts his statement. Petitioner failed to call for a witness, the co-defendant Martin’s attorney, who [367]*367was the only person who could help him. The unexplained failure of Lester to call as a witnesss Martin’s attorney, W. T. Combs, supports an inference that Combs, if called, would have testified against the interests of Lester. Blow v. Compagnie Maritime Belge, 395 F.2d 74, 79 (4th Cir. 1968). Petitioner has not sustained the burden of proof by credible testimony, and this contention is found to be without merit.

The petitioner’s third contention is that the testimony in the robbery trial was perjured. This is supported only by the written statement of the co-defendant Martin and not by Martin’s oral testimony given at the habeas corpus hearing. Only in the statement, not in the oral testimony, does Martin charge that the Commonwealth’s Attorney knew that any evidence was perjured when he used it.

Taking all inferences most favorable to the petitioner, the only evidence offered in the robbery trial which could reasonably be said to be perjured was the testimony of Martin mentioned above to the effect that he had known petitioner since petitioner was released from the penitentiary in Richmond, and his statement he had been promised nothing for his testimony. The transcript of the robbery trial shows conclusively that the statement about the penitentiary was not responsive to the questioning of the Commonwealth’s Attorney who immediately disavowed any connection with the testimony. It is not a fact that the Commonwealth’s Attorney knowingly used false evidence, either about the penitentiary or about any promise to Martin. See Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217.

The proof offered is not analogous to Napue and Miller v. Pate, 386 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 785, 17 L.Ed.2d 690 (1967), in which a writ of habeas corpus issued when the State knowingly allowed paint stains to be taken for blood stains. In each of those cases, the State had knowingly and admittedly used perjured testimony.

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

Related

Brown v. Haynes
385 F. Supp. 285 (W.D. Missouri, 1974)
Young v. Warden, Maryland Penitentiary
383 F. Supp. 986 (D. Maryland, 1974)
Hancock v. Slayton
341 F. Supp. 436 (W.D. Virginia, 1972)
Moore v. United States Marshal
326 F. Supp. 287 (W.D. Virginia, 1971)
Younger v. Cox
323 F. Supp. 412 (W.D. Virginia, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
303 F. Supp. 364, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lester-v-peyton-vawd-1969.