Painter v. Peyton

257 F. Supp. 913, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6830
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedAugust 26, 1966
DocketMisc. No. 5601
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 257 F. Supp. 913 (Painter v. Peyton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Painter v. Peyton, 257 F. Supp. 913, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6830 (E.D. Va. 1966).

Opinion

OPINION and JUDGMENT

DALTON, District Judge,

sitting by designation.

This cause comes before the court upon a writ of habeas corpus filed by a State prisoner who is presently incarcerated in the Virginia State Penitentiary.

On May 5, 1961, petitioner was arraigned and pleaded guilty to indictments charging: (1) entering a banking house armed with a deadly weapon with intent to commit larceny of money, and (2) grand larceny of an automobile. On June 22, 1961, after receiving a pre-sentence report, evidence, and hearing arguments of counsel, the Circuit Court of Augusta County, Virginia sentenced petitioner to a forty year term of imprisonment on the first indictment and a twenty year term on the second, the sentences to run concurrently.

On June 29, 1961, petitioner filed written motions for modification of the sentence or, in the alternative, that a new trial be granted. On March 7, 1962 the court, in the absence of petitioner, heard these motions and overruled both by an order entered March 15, 1962. The case was appealed on a writ of error to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia and, on October 8, 1962, that Court affirmed the judgment of the Augusta County Court.

Shortly after petitioner’s arrest, his family hired Mr. Anthony J. Baroody, an attorney who had been retained in the past by the Painters, and he represented Mr. Painter in all of the above proceedings.

On July 6,1964, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus was filed by petitioner in the Law and Equity Court for the City of Richmond. The writ was made returnable to the Circuit Court of Ap-gusta County and a hearing was held in that Court on March 17, 1965. The Court appointed Mr. C. J. S. Thomas, Jr., to represent petitioner’s interests. On March 20, 1965, an order was entered denying the writ and dismissing the petition. On January 19, 1966, a petition for writ of error was rejected by the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. Petitioner had thereby exhausted his State remedies.

The court will quote from the present petition with respect to Mr. Painter’s alleged grounds for relief:

The convictions and sentences pursuant to which petitioner is being detained were imposed in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States in that (1) the petitioner was denied the right to counsel prior to making a confession, was not effectively warned of his rights and was forced to confess by illegal means; (2) that the petitioner was not present at all stages of the proceedings against him; (3) that the Court abused its discretion in fixing punishment by taking into consideration the parole laws which resulted in a longer sentence than the Court would otherwise have imposed had such laws been nonexistent; (4) that the petitioner did not have adequate representation by counsel prior [915]*915to, and during the course of the criminal proceedings.

The court has carefully reviewed the record in this case, including all available transcripts of prior proceedings, and has concluded that Mr. Painter is not entitled to the relief he seeks.

The court will first note that the fact that petitioner did not have counsel during police interrogation does not constitute a violation of his constitutional rights. Escobedo v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964), the United States Supreme Court decision which gives one charged with a crime the right to the services of counsel in State prosecutions when the process has turned from investigatory to accusatory applies only to those whose trial began after June 22, 1964, and Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), which clarified Escobedo and made it explicit that the right to counsel exists during police questioning and that the accused must be warned of certain rights applies only to those whose State trial began after June 13, 1966. Johnson v. State of New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966). Petitioner Painter was convicted on June 22, 1961, and so cannot avail himself of either the Escobedo or Miranda decisions.

It will also be remembered that petitioner entered a voluntary plea of guilty to both indictments on the advice of an able and competent attorney. Mr. Ba-roody testified that he thought it best to enter the guilty pleas since Mr. Painter had told him that he was guilty (a fact which petitioner does not deny now) and it was his judgment as an attorney that the best course to follow would be to rely upon the mercy of the court. There is authority to the effect that a petitioner who enters a voluntary plea of guilty cannot later complain of irregularities which occurred prior to such plea (for example, that his confession was illegally obtained). See Suarez v. United States, 333 F.2d 366 (5th Cir. 1964), cert, denied, 379 U.S. 993, 85 S.Ct. 706, 13 L.Ed.2d 612 (1965). In Sullivan v. United States, 315 F.2d 304 (10th Cir. 1963), the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit said that if a guilty plea is voluntary, an illegal arrest resulting in an inadmissible confession does not constitute grounds for relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255.

Even without the above rule, however, it is obvious that petitioner’s allegations of fraud and mental coercion with respect to his confession are groundless. Petitioner was apparently questioned on two separate occasions, March 23, 1961, and March 24, 1961. He was released after the first questioning, and testified that he was so nervous and upset that he could not sleep. As a consequence, Mr. Painter alleges, at the time of the second questioning he had been without sleep for some forty-five hours. Two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were present when petitioner was arrested on March 24, 1961, and they testified in person and by affidavit that Painter was immediately informed of his right not to make a statement, that any statement made by him could be used against him in a court of law, and that he was entitled to consult an attorney prior to making any statement. Petitioner’s attorney has argued that the agents must be mistaken in this regard, as “the cases stating that that must be done [that an accused must be warned of certain rights] had not yet been decided and that either these gentlemen were clairvoyant and knew what was coming or that they were mistaken in their recollection.” This argument is not persuasive when it is remembered that these were agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who gave the warnings. The Sixth Amendment, with its right to counsel clause, has always been binding on the federal government, and it has always been the practice of the FBI to give a warning such as the agents claim they gave in this case. There is no reason to believe that the warnings were not given — in fact, all the evidence points to the fact that the petitioner was advised of his [916]*916rights. In view of the fact that petitioner was ultimately prosecuted by the State of Virginia, it seems unlikely, in the light of Johnson v.

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Bluebook (online)
257 F. Supp. 913, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6830, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/painter-v-peyton-vaed-1966.