Noble v. State

552 S.W.2d 267, 1977 Mo. App. LEXIS 2844
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided May 2, 1977·No. No. 28325·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

SOMERVILLE, Judge.

As mirrored by this appeal from an adverse ruling on a Rule 27.26 motion, the aftermath of the 1954 prison riot at the Missouri State Penitentiary, Jefferson City, Missouri, still stalks the courts of this state. During the course of the riot an inmate was murdered. Shortly after the riot was quelled Jack L. Noble,1 appellant herein, and six fellow inmates were jointly indicted by a Cole County Grand Jury for first degree murder. Severances were subsequently obtained and each accused was separately tried.

[269] Noble stood trial in the Circuit Court of Cole County where a jury on March 29, 1955, found him guilty of first degree murder and assessed his punishment at life imprisonment. Although a timely motion for new trial was filed, Noble, in writing,2 subsequently withdrew it, waived his right to appeal, and requested the trial court to enter judgment and pronounce sentence in accordance with the verdict returned by the jury. The trial court on July 18, 1955, acting thereon, entered judgment and pronounced that Noble be sentenced to life imprisonment. Whether Noble voluntarily waived his right to appeal courses throughout this and a series of prior post-conviction proceedings which he initiated. The earlier attempts to obtain relief warrant being mentioned in some detail at this time, in conjunction with certain basic and undisputed facts, in order to put the present appeal in proper perspective.

Immediately after the indictment was returned (November 23, 1954), Noble and his six co-indictees were transferred from the general prison population and separately placed in “segregated confinement”.3 More particularly, Noble was placed in “B basement” where he was held in “segregated confinement”, except for intervals of temporary transfer attendant to his trial, until September 11, 1955, at which time he was returned to the general prison population.

On July 1, 1960, Noble, acting pro se, filed a Rule 27.26 motion in the Circuit Court of Cole County seeking to vacate his life sentence. Therein, Noble alleged that he was “induced” to waive his right to appeal because his counsel told him “that an agreement had been reached between counsel for defendant and counsel for the state, whereby he would be ‘immediately5 released from solitary confinement if he would agree to waive his right of appeal.” For some unexplained reason this motion was “dismissed without an evidentiary hearing”, and on January 1, 1961, Noble began serving the life sentence.

On February 4,1964, Noble, acting pro se, filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Circuit Court of Cole County which, by mutual agreement of the parties, was treated as a motion for relief under Rule 27.26. The thrust thereof centered around Noble’s contention that he involuntarily waived his right to appeal because defense counsel, the prosecuting attorney, and prison authorities “entered into a conspiracy and agreement to act in concert and togather [sic] to intimidate, induce, and coerce petitioner to withdraw his motion for a new trial and waive his right to appeal . . . ” in exchange for a promise to release him from “segregated confinement”. Following an eviden-tiary hearing, the trial court “found the issues” against Noble and entered judgment denying him any post-conviction relief. On appeal, the Supreme Court, after reviewing the matter de novo (per former Rule 28.05 which was repealed by order adopted January 9, 1967, effective September 1, 1967), held that Noble had “failed to sustain the burden of establishing the allegations of his petition” and affirmed the judgment entered by the trial court. State v. Noble, 387 S.W.2d 522, 527 (Mo.1965). A fair reading of State v. Noble, supra, discloses that the Supreme Court found, after an extensive review and discussion of all of the evidence (set forth at length in the opinion), that no “conspiracy” or “agreement” existed, as alleged by Noble, to induce him to trade off his right to appeal for his release from “segregated confinement”. This conclusion is buttressed by the following statement in State v. Noble, supra, at 527: “Although the prospect of continued solitary confiné[270] ment might have been a factor in Noble’s mind, it was not shown to have been the basis of any bargain between his attorney and the state officials in order to defeat Noble’s right of appeal.”

Having failed to obtain post-conviction relief in the state courts, Noble next filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court, Western District of Missouri, Central Division. Once again Noble’s principal contention, albeit cast in slightly different language, was that “his court appointed counsel, the Prosecuting Attorney and the warden of the prison conspired to and did unconstitutionally deprive him of his right of appeal by coercing him into withdrawing his motion for new trial and waiving his right to appeal in exchange for his release from solitary confinement.” Noble v. Swenson, 285 F.Supp. 385, 386 (W.D.Mo., 1968). In denying the relief sought by Noble by way of his petition for writ of habeas corpus, the federal district court, at 387, held: “We find that the Supreme Court of Missouri exercised its power of de novo review and that it reliably found the facts as stated in its opinion in State v. Noble, supra [State v. Noble, 387 S.W.2d 522 (Mo.1965)]. We make this finding as a result of our independent study of the transcript of the hearing before Judge Blair, the exhibits attached thereto and the opinion of the Supreme Court of Missouri in petitioner’s 27.26 proceeding. We further find that petitioner was afforded a full and fair evidentiary hearing on the contention presented in his Rule 27.26 motion. Deferring to the Missouri Supreme Court’s findings of fact and applying the federal law independently, we find and determine that petitioner was not unconstitutionally denied his right of appeal by a conspiracy between the court-appointed attorney, the Prosecuting Attorney, and the officials of the Missouri State Prison.” The federal district court however took cognizance, Noble v. Swenson, supra, at 387, that Noble (in his brief) attempted to raise an additional issue, to-wit, “it is possible that the State of Missouri in the operation of Missouri State Prison, has coerced petitioner into giving up his right to appeal”, never before presented to the state courts of Missouri, and, perforce, with respect to which Noble had not exhausted-his state court remedies.

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Noble v. State, 552 S.W.2d 267, 1977 Mo. App. LEXIS 2844 (Mo. Ct. App. 1977).

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