Lyle v. Stewart

80 F. Supp. 167, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2053
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedOctober 8, 1948
DocketNo. 5352
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 80 F. Supp. 167 (Lyle v. Stewart) 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
Lyle v. Stewart, 80 F. Supp. 167, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2053 (W.D. Mo. 1948).

Opinion

RIDGE, District Judge.

Petitioner, now confined in the Missouri State Penitentiary under judgment of con[168]*168viction by a court of the State of Missouri, seeks to file in forma pauperis application for writ of habeas corpus to test the legality of his conviction, sentence and detention.

On the face ,, of the application here sought to be filed it appears, that petitioner “on June 30, 1948, filed an original application for a writ of habeas corpus in' the Supreme Court of Missouri” in which petitioner claimed “that he was deprived of due process of law on constitutional grounds of the fairness of his trial.” July 12, 1948, the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri denied “the application * * without a decision, failing to decide the constitutional issue involved, relying solely upon the court decision on direct appeal — State v. Lyle, 353 Mo., 386, 182 L. (sic) W. 2 Ed. 530.” July 23, 1948, petitioner filed in the Supreme Court of Missouri a motion for rehearing, which said motion was by that court overruled on September 13, 1948.

It is readily inferable from the allegations of the instant application that the identical grounds here relied upon by petitioner for issuance 'of a writ of habeas corpus by this Court were raised and presented by plaintiff in his application to the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri for a like writ. The grounds here alleged-by petitioner are: (1) that he was not present in court at the empaneling of the jury before which he was tried for murder in the first degree; (2) that he was not afforded compulsory process to obtain witnesses in his favor; (3) that petitioner did not háve a preliminary hearing; and (4) that petitioner at no time waived his right to indictment by a Grand Jury and consented to be tried by information as was done in the state court of his conviction.

We do not reach a decision whether the matters so presented by petitioner in his instant application, or in his application before the Supr.eme Court of Missouri, raise federal constitutional grounds which would authorize the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus. Assuming, without deciding, that the matters so alleged are sufficient grounds for issuance of a writ of habeas corpus, we do not believe that this United States District Court can now entertain the instant application of petitioner for the following reasons:

September 1, 1948, the new United States Code Judiciary and Judicial Procedure became effective. Section 2254 of such Revised Code, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254, provides as follows:
“An application for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted unless it appears that the applicant has .exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State, or that there is either an absence of available State corrective process or the existence of circumstances rendering such process ineffective to protect the rights of the prisoner.
“An applicant shall not be deemed to have exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State, within the meaning of this section, if he has the right under the law of the State to raise, by any available procedure, the question presented.”

The Honorable John J. Parker* Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit; Judicial Consultant to the Committee on Revision of Laws of the House of Representatives that considered the revision of the Judicial Code; Chairman of the Committee of the Judicial Conference of Senior Circuit Judges to Study Procedure on Habeas Corpus in the Federal Courts; and a most eminent Federal Circuit Judge; in a recent article, “Limiting the Abuse of Habeas Corpus”, found in 8 F.R.D. 171, addressing himself to the effect that the enactment of Section 2254, supra, has had on procedure in United States District Courts on petitions for-writs of habeas corpus by prisoners confined in state institutions under judgments, of a state court, said: “It will be noted that this section does not prevent application for habeas corpus to the federal courts, if the state has failed to provide corrective process available to the applicant, or if there are circumstances which render the state process ineffective to protect his rights. If the State has provided adequate process, however, and no such circumstances appear, the application may not be granted unless it appears that ap~ [169]*169plicant has exhausted his remedies under state law; and an applicant is not deemed to have exhausted such remedies ‘if he has the right under the law of the State to raise, by any available procedure, the question presented’. The effect of this last provision is to eliminate, for all practical purposes, the right to apply to the lower federal courts for habeas corpus in all states in which successive applications may be made for habeas corpus to the state courts; for, in all such states, the applicant has the right, notwithstanding the denial of prior applications, to apply again to the state courts for habeas corpus and to have action upon such later application reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States on application for certiorari,”

In light of the provisions of Section 2254, supra, of the Revised Judicial Code, and the pre-eminence we attach to the interpretation thereof by Judge Parker (supra), we feel constrained to determine, before entertaining the instant application for habeas corpus, whether under the facts therein alleged petitioner can be said to have exhausted the remedies available” to him in the Courts of the State of Missouri, to test the legality of his conviction and detention; and, whether he now “has the right under the law of (that) State to raise, by any available procedure, the questions” here presented. We do not believe that petitioner has exhausted his state remedies. On the contrary, we are of the opinion that petitioner still has available procedure, under the laws of the State of Missouri, whereby “the questions presented” can be determined by the Courts of that State without invoking the jurisdiction of this United States District Court.

Section 2254, supra, is declaratory of the law announced by the Supreme Court of the United States in Ex parte Hawk, 321 U.S. 114, 64 S.Ct. 448, 88 L.Ed. 572. In that case, the rule was announced, 321 U.S. loc. cit. 116, 64 S.Ct. loc. cit. 450, that “Ordinarily an application for habeas corpus by one detained under a state court judgment of conviction for crime will be entertained by a federal court only after all state remedies available, including all appellate remedies in the state courts and in this Court by “appeal or writ of certiorari, have been exhausted.” Until the opinion of the Supreme Court in Wade v. Mayo, 334 U.S. 672, 68 S.Ct. 1270, the lower federal courts have consistently held, consonant with the rule announced in Hawk’s case, that they will not entertain applications for writs of habeas corpus, by prisoners detained under a judgment of conviction of state courts, under circumstances as presented in the case at bar, until after such prisoner has sought review of the judgment of the state court, in his habeas corpus proceeding there first instituted, either by appeal or application for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States. See dis. op. Wade v. Mayo, supra, 334 U.S. at pages 687, 688, 68 S.Ct. at pages 1277, 1278.

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80 F. Supp. 167, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2053, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lyle-v-stewart-mowd-1948.