Newbold v. Swenson

371 F. Supp. 118, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12706
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedJanuary 18, 1974
DocketNo. 73 C 386(4)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 371 F. Supp. 118 (Newbold v. Swenson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Newbold v. Swenson, 371 F. Supp. 118, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12706 (E.D. Mo. 1974).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

NANGLE, District Judge.

Edward Lee Newbold, a Missouri state prisoner, petitions for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241 and 2254. He is presently incarcerated in the Missouri State Penitentiary pursuant to three orders of judgment and sentence imposed by the Circuit Court for Criminal Causes of the City of St. Louis, Missouri. Petitioner pleaded guilty to first degree murder, assault, and robbery; he was immediately sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment and one term of five years imprisonment, all concurrent.

As the sole ground for the instant petition Newbold alleges that he was deprived of due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States because the state trial court failed to conduct sua sponte a hearing on whether he was competent at the time of his guilty plea and sentencing, citing Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375, 86 S.Ct. 836, 15 L.Ed.2d 815 (1966).

Petitioner filed a motion in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis pursuant to Missouri Supreme Court Rule 27.26, V.A.M.R. alleging inter alia (a) that he was mentally incompetent when he pleaded guilty and was sentenced; and (b) that he was not afforded a hearing and a judicial determination of his competence to stand trial prior to his guilty plea as required by Missouri law. These issues were ruled against petitioner by the Missouri Circuit Court after an evidentiary hearing held pursuant to Missouri Supreme Court Rule 27.26. The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed. Newbold v. State of Missouri, 492 S.W.2d 809 (Mo.1973). The Court finds and concludes that petitioner has exhausted his available state remedies as required by 28 U.S.C. § 2254.

The facts relevant to petitioner’s conviction are set out fully in the opinion of the Missouri ■ Supreme Court, supra.

On May 21, 1969, petitioner entered his pleas of guilty in the state trial court. Regarding the issue of whether a competency hearing was required prior to his pleas and sentencing, the Rule 27.-26 trial court found as follows:

The record in this ease will show that on or about April 24, 1968 a motion for appointment of a psychiatrist was filed, and on or about May 13, 1968 the State not opposing defendant’s motion fo*- such appointment, the motion was granted and defendant was committed to the Malcolm Bliss Mental Health Center for mental examination. On or about September 16, 1968 the Malcolm Bliss Mental Health Center filed a report and, following the filing of this report, the defendant was ordered transferred from the Malcolm Bliss Mental Health Center to the State Hospital at Fulton, Missouri for mental examination. On or about November 8, 1968 this defendant, having been examined at the State Hospital at Fulton, Missouri, was returned to the City of St. Louis and his cause was ordered placed upon the trial docket — it being the finding at the State Hospital that this defendant was mentally competent to stand trial. Thereafter, on or about Febru[120]*120ary 18, 1969 defendant, not being satisfied with the report from the previous psychiatric examination, • requested and filed a motion for the Court to appoint a physician or psychiatrist of defendant’s own choosing for a mental examination at the cost of the State. This motion was sustained except that portion thereof which directed that the cost be paid by the State, which was overruled. Therefore, it appears to this Court that this defendant-movant was given a psychiatric examination and was found capable of standing trial and was further granted the opportunity to have an examination by anyone that he saw fit — yet the defendantmovant failed to avail himself of this opportunity. There was nothing before the trial judge at the time this defendant-movant pleaded guilty that would indicate that this man was suffering from any mental disease or deficiency that would render him incompetent to enter a plea of guilty. Therefore, in view of the above, it is the Opinion of this Court that the Trial Court properly accepted the movant’s pleas of guilty. It is this Court’s further opinion because of the foregoing that the Trial Court did not have to make a separate finding of mental competence because this was not an issue before the Trial Judge at the time the pleas were entered. (Resp. Exh. A, pp. 71-72).

The Missouri Supreme Court stated as follows:

The record further shows request for a second examination which was granted but, upon the court’s unwillingness to provide for its payment, defendant declined to pursue it. It shows also that counsel took the Fulton report and consulted with two psychiatrists to determine whether to seek additional examination. The proceedings at the guilty pleas transpired without further mention of a desire for further examination or the presence of mental disease or defect; and, as stated by Judge Walsh, there was no issue of defendant’s competency at the plea proceedings. Nothing in the record indicated incompetency of defendant when he was pleading, and no question was directed to the Fulton report. At the most, the record indicated only that he had some history of mental problems and an inability to detail the facts of his crimes. There is even positive evidence of his rationality in his question to the court for the meaning of imprisonment “for his natural life.”

492 S.W.2d at 818.

With respect to the material facts, petitioner controverts only the respondent’s argument that “[ljikewise, the record showed that the request for a second examination which was granted by the court was not pursued by the petitioner”. Petitioner argues that his second motion for an examination was overruled only as to the request that the state bear the cost. The record is clear that petitioner did not seek either another examination at a state institution or an examination by a psychiatrist of his own choosing at his own expense.

It appears to the Court that petitioner received a full and complete post-conviction evidentiary hearing in the state court on the issue presented here, that the state courts made adequate and reliable findings of the facts material to petitioner’s claim, and that an evidentiary hearing in this Court is not required by Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963).

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Pate v. Robinson, supra, that the evidence introduced on the defendant’s behalf on the issue of his competency to stand trial entitled him to a hearing. The failure to grant the hearing was deemed a denial of his constitutional right to a fair trial. At trial there was presented uncontradicted evidence of a long history of disturbed behavior. The state introduced a stipulation that an examining doctor would, if present, testify that Robinson knew the nature of the charges against him and was able to cooperate with counsel when he examined him two or three months before trial.

[121]*121In Jones v.

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Evans v. Swenson
371 F. Supp. 1101 (E.D. Missouri, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
371 F. Supp. 118, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/newbold-v-swenson-moed-1974.