Pineda v. Craven

327 F. Supp. 1062, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13074
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMay 27, 1971
DocketNo. C-70 1096
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 327 F. Supp. 1062 (Pineda v. Craven) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pineda v. Craven, 327 F. Supp. 1062, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13074 (N.D. Cal. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

PECKHAM, District Judge.

In this action Ernest Pineda, a California prisoner, seeks federal habeas corpus relief from his 1964 conviction in the California Superior Court for possession of heroin. Such relief was initially sought from the United States District Court, for the Eastern District of California, where the petition was denied without an evidentiary hearing. On appeal from that denial, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded, with directions that petitioner was entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the question of whether petitioner’s counsel in the state court had deliberately bypassed or waived available state procedures when he failed to raise a possible Fourth Amendment defense. Pineda v. Craven, 424 F.2d 369 (1970). On remand to the Central District, the judge ordered the case transferred to this judicial district since the witnesses needed for the evidentiary hearing reside in this district.

In this court, counsel for petitioner then filed an amended petition for habeas corpus relief, realleging the Fourth Amendment ground and adding thereto a claim of denial of the Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel based on evidence first discovered at that time. Also raised was the question of whether the Ninth Circuit opinion had foreclosed consideration of the validity of a 1951 conviction of petitioner, which was admitted as a prior at the 1964 trial and used to enhance the sentence therein. This court issued an order to show caúse, to which a return and a traverse were filed. The court then made its pre-hearing order, in which it determined that the proper is[1065]*1065sues for the evidentiary hearing would be the Fourth Amendment by-pass question and the Sixth Amendment effective counsel issue. Consideration of the 1951 prior was held to be precluded by the Ninth Circuit opinion. The court also indicated that the State of California would be free to attempt to sustain the search that was made in this case as a legal warrantless search, the Ninth Circuit having declared in Pineda that the search warrant involved here was plainly invalid under Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964). See Order of November 25, 1970. The evidentiary hearing was held on February 10, 1971. After the transcript became available, counsel filed additional briefs. The case stands submitted as of April 22, 1971.

I. THE BY-PASS ISSUE

Initially, respondent renews the contention that the case of McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970), “revolutionized” the law on deliberate by-pass of state procedures and established a standard inconsistent with the standard used by the Ninth Circuit in its Pineda decision wherein an evidentiary hearing on the by-pass issue was ordered. This court rejected this contention in its pre-hearing order, and now re-affirms its conclusion in that regard. McMann established the law on the availability of post-conviction relief where the conviction rests on a guilty plea. The Supreme Court characterized a guilty plea in certain circumstanes as “ * * * nothing less than a refusal to present his federal claims to the state court in the first instance — a choice by the defendant to take the benefits, if any, of a plea of guilty and then to pursue his coerced-eonfession claim in collateral proceedings.” 397 U.S. at 768, 90 S.Ct. at 1447. The Court concluded that if the plea of guilty — and the “plain by-pass” of a state forum inherent in it — was based on reasonably competent advice of counsel, then collateral attack on the voluntariness of the plea would be precluded. In essence, the Court held that if the guilty plea by-pass of a state forum was an intelligent, rational, deliberate choice through which the defendant hoped to profit, then that defendant should not later be allowed to complain.

In the present case, however, Pineda was convicted after a trial. In this situation, the very act of going to trial negates the deliberate refusal to present federal claims to the state forum that inheres in the intelligent guilty plea. McMann is therefore inapposite;1 and that decision thus did not erode the mandate of the Ninth Circuit in Pineda that an evidentiary hearing be held to resolve the by-pass issue herein.

Resolution of the by-pass issue in the present case is a simple matter. The Ninth Circuit pointed out that trial counsel in Pineda’s state conviction apparently did not know about Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), and that if this ignorance was the reason why counsel did not object to evidence seized pursuant to a search warrant infirm under Aguilar, then there would of course have been no [1066]*1066deliberate by-pass or waiver. 424 F.2d at 372. The testimony of petitioner’s trial attorney, adduced at the evidentiary hearing, has established that he was in fact unaware of the Aguilar decision, and that this was therefore the reason for his failure to object to the introduction of evidence seized pursuant to the invalid search warrant. (RT 11). Accordingly, this court concludes that there was no deliberate by-pass or waiver of this federal claim, and that it is thus cognizable in these proceedings.

II. THE SEARCH-AND-SEIZURE ISSUE

The essential facts surrounding the search and seizure are these: Stanley Shaver, a member of the narcotics detail of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, participated in the arrest of petitioner and the execution of the (invalid) search warrant on August 3, 1964. (RT 48). Sometime in the latter part of July, 1964, detective Shaver received information from a confidential informant that petitioner’s brother, Charlie Pineda, was in possession of heroin and had been dealing in it. (RT 51). The informant told Mr. Shaver that he had purchased heroin from Charlie Pineda, and that Charlie Pineda’s house on Chestnut Street in Gilroy contained heroin. (RT 52). The informant had proven reliable in the past, having given information which had resulted in arrests and convictions several times. (RT 49-50). The informant had not passed any false information to Shaver at any time. (RT 50). Detective Shaver could not recall the date on which the informant had allegedly purchased heroin from Charlie Pineda, (RT 58), but testified that it was his policy to procure a search warrant within 10 days from the date of receiving such information. (RT 57-58).

On the evening of August 3, 1964, sometime shortly after dark, Shaver and other officers put Charlie Pineda’s house under surveillance. (RT 52, 59). They were about one-half block away. While observing the house, a vehicle in which Shaver had previously seen Charlie Pineda pulled into the driveway. Someone alighted from the car and entered the house. (RT 52, 53). Given the darkness and the distance, detective Shaver was unable to • recognize the person. This person did not leave the residence prior to the raid which ensued.

When the detectives entered the residence, they did not knock; nor was there a prior announcement of identity and purpose.

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Related

United States v. Jerry R. Blake
632 F.2d 731 (Ninth Circuit, 1980)
Ernest Vivallava Pineda v. Walter E. Craven, Warden
465 F.2d 999 (Ninth Circuit, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
327 F. Supp. 1062, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pineda-v-craven-cand-1971.