Mothershead v. King

37 F. Supp. 210, 1941 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3681
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedFebruary 24, 1941
DocketNo. 142
StatusPublished

This text of 37 F. Supp. 210 (Mothershead v. King) 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
Mothershead v. King, 37 F. Supp. 210, 1941 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3681 (W.D. Mo. 1941).

Opinion

REEVES, District Judge.

The petitioner seeks his discharge from custody on several grounds — First, because of impaired hearing he did not understand the proceedings at the time he entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced, or, specifically, as he alleges, “without petitioner being able to hear a word of the indictments read out to him and without having been furnished a copy of the same to read [211]*211for himself.” The second and third grounds asserted by the petitioner are that he was “without the assistance of counsel, in his defense, and without petitioner’s ■waiving the assistance of counsel, or the service of a copy of the indictments against him, your petitioner entered a plea of guilty thereto, as the result of inadvertence, ignorance, persuasion and misinformation, and thereupon said Judge of said Court sentenced your petitioner to fifteen years’ imprisonment.”

In the petition reference is made to a former proceeding in this court, as follows: “Petitioner says that the petition now presented is not the same petition as originally filed as petition No. 21, but has important and significant differentiations, but that it does include substantially the same fundamental issues, with a variant of factual allegation.”

When the petition mentioned was filed and presented there was a dismissal on the ground that it did not state facts warranting the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus. From this ruling an appeal was taken and the case was reversed. The Court of Appeals ruled that the petitioner was entitled, when he entered his plea of guilty, to the aid of counsel and since it did not appear that he had intelligently and competently waived the right the petition was sufficient and the writ ought to have been issued. 8 Cir., 112 F.2d 1004.

Upon the reversal of the case and after the mandate had been received, Judge Otis promptly docketed the case for hearing at Kansas City and caused the petitioner to be brought here for the trial. The government at great expense brought ■ witnesses from Washington, D. C., to testify on behalf of the Warden. At the conclusion of the trial Judge Otis made the following Findings of Fact:

“I. When the petitioner was arrested on a charge of breaking and entering, a place of business in the City of Washington, he was able to understand conversation if carried on in a tone of voice somewhat louder than the ordinary tone of voice. He freely discussed the case with the police officers who arrested him.”
“II. In the police court of the City of Washington, the judge of which also acted as examining magistrate, the petitioner was advised as to the nature of the charge against him, was asked whether he desired an attorney and said he did not desire an attorney but that he intended to enter a plea of guilty.
“III. On arraignment in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding, the defendant was again asked, on this occasion by the Chief Justice, whether he desired an attorney. In response to that question he said that he did not desire an attorney, that he intended to enter a plea of guilty. He did enter a plea of guilty. He was then sentenced.”

Judge Otis dismissed the writ and remanded the petitioner to the custody of the warden.

1. The question now presented is whether a writ of habeas corpus should be issued upon the present petition. In the very well-known case of Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, loc. cit. 468, 58 S.Ct. 1019, loc. cit. 1025, 82 L.Ed. 1461, a majority of the justices said: “It must be remembered, however, that a judgment cannot be lightly set aside by collateral attack, even on habeas corpus. When collaterally attacked, the judgment of a court carries with it a presumption of regularity. Where a defendant, without counsel, acquiesces in a trial resulting in his conviction and later seeks release by the extraordinary remedy of habeas corpus, the burden of proof rests upon him to establish that he did not competently and intelligently waive his constitutional right to assistance of counsel. If in a habeas corpus hearing, he does meet this burden and convinces the court by a preponderance of evidence that he neither had counsel nor properly waived his constitutional right to counsel, it is the duty of the court to grant the writ.”

The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution provides that: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right * * * to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.”

It should be noted that the Sixth Amendment pertains to the subject of trials in criminal prosecutions and does not relate, unless by implication, to those cases where a person formally and properly accused of crime voluntarily enters a plea of guilty.

In the case of Johnson v. Zerbst, supra, there was a trial to a jury and a conviction.

In the case of Sanders v. Allen, 69 App. D.C. 307, 100 F.2d 717, 718, the petitioner alleged in her application for writ of habeas corpus that she “was suffering from [212]*212the effects of a drug which had been administered to her without her knowledge, and that at neither time was she mentally able to understand the nature of the charge against her or to make her defense * * * that on her trial she was entitled of right, under the provisions of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution, U.S.C.A. Const. Amends. 5, 6, to be represented by counsel, and that she was not informed of this right and did not waive it.”

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rather reluctantly, it appears, reversed the case and directed the issuance of the writ. In doing so, the court said: “The general rule established by a long line of decisions beginning with Ex parte Carll, 106 U.S. 521, 1 S.Ct. 535, 27 L.Ed. 288, is that power to review a conviction for crime by issuing a writ of habeas corpus is confined to the determination of the court’s jurisdiction to try the petitioner for the offense and to sentence him to imprisonment. In the recent case of Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 465, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461, however, the Supreme Court said that the rule must be construed and applied so as to preserve — not destroy— constitutional safeguards of human life and liberty. The court held this extension of the rule to include examination of facts outside of but not inconsistent with the record and the duty upon determination of the facts ‘to “dispose of the party as law and justice require.” ’ ”

In sending the case back for a new trial, the court said: “Following, therefore, the rule announced in Johnson v. Zerbst, we think it proper to remand the case to the District Court with instructions to issue the writ and hear the evidence and determine on the hearing whether it is true or untrue that petitioner was at the time of the arrest and trial so mentally distraught as to be unable to understand the nature of the proceeding against her and to make her defense. But the inquiry, we think, should be confined to that single subject.”

The court cited the case of Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 53 S.Ct. 55, 77 L.Ed.

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Related

Ex Parte Carll
106 U.S. 521 (Supreme Court, 1883)
Salinger v. Loisel
265 U.S. 224 (Supreme Court, 1924)
Johnson v. Zerbst
304 U.S. 458 (Supreme Court, 1938)
Walker v. Johnston
312 U.S. 275 (Supreme Court, 1941)
Powell v. Alabama
287 U.S. 45 (Supreme Court, 1932)
Zahn v. Hudspeth
102 F.2d 759 (Tenth Circuit, 1939)
Sanders v. Allen
100 F.2d 717 (D.C. Circuit, 1938)
United States Ex Rel. Bergdoll v. Drum
107 F.2d 897 (Second Circuit, 1939)
Mothershead v. King
112 F.2d 1004 (Eighth Circuit, 1940)
Harpin v. Johnston
109 F.2d 434 (Ninth Circuit, 1940)
Buckner v. Hudspeth
105 F.2d 396 (Tenth Circuit, 1939)
Pers v. Hudspeth
110 F.2d 812 (Tenth Circuit, 1940)
Scott v. Aderhold
116 F.2d 797 (Tenth Circuit, 1940)
Erwin v. Sanford
27 F. Supp. 892 (N.D. Georgia, 1939)

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Bluebook (online)
37 F. Supp. 210, 1941 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mothershead-v-king-mowd-1941.