Powell v. Livesay

660 F. Supp. 82, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4057
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 6, 1987
DocketCiv. A. No. 3:86-1074
StatusPublished

This text of 660 F. Supp. 82 (Powell v. Livesay) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Powell v. Livesay, 660 F. Supp. 82, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4057 (M.D. Tenn. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDERS

NEESE, Senior District Judge,

Sitting by Designation and Assignment.

The petitioner Mr. J.E. Powell applied pro se for the federal writ of habeas corpus, claiming he is in the custody of the respondent-warden within the Eastern District of Tennessee, 28 U.S.C. § 123(a)(4), pursuant to the judgment of July, 1978 of the Criminal Court of Tennessee for its 22d judicial district (encompassing Giles County) within this District in violation of the federal Constitution, Sixth Amendment, Right to the Assistance of Counsel Clause, and Fourteenth Amendment, Rights to Due Process and the Equal Protection of the Law Clauses. 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241(c)(3), 2254(a). The applicant claims the existence of circumstances rendering the corrective process of the state of Tennessee ineffective to protect his federal right as its prisoner, 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b), in that nine or ten months have elapsed since he filed a petition for the writ of habeas corpus in the trial Court which convicted him without action’s having been taken thereon.

[84]*84“[A] state prisoner must normally exhaust available state remedies before a writ of habeas corpus can be granted by the federal courts.” Duckworth v. Serrano, 454 U.S. 1, 3, 102 S.Ct. 18, 19, 70 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981). The exhaustion-requirement enacted as 28 U.S.C. §§ 2254(b), (c), “is to prevent ‘unnecessary conflict between courts equally bound to guard and protect rights secured by the [federal] Constitution.’ ” Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 275, 92 S.Ct. 509, 512, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971) (citation omitted).

“However, exhaustion is a doctrine of comity and where it appears the state has been unnecessarily and intentionally dilatory, ... to hold that a petitioner is still precluded from pursuing his remedy in federal court reduces the Great Writ to a sham and mockery.” Mucie v. Missouri State Dept. of Corrections, 543 F.2d 633, 636 (8th Cir.1976) (footnote-references omitted). For that reason, “an inordinate and unjustified delay in the state corrective process may well ... be such a circumstance as to render that process ineffective,” Dixon v. Florida, 388 F.2d 424, 425 (5th Cir.1968), thereby enabling a federal court to consider the merits of unexhausted claims. Accordingly, it hereby is

ORDERED that the respondent-warden file an answer in accordance with Rule 5, Rules—§ 2254 Cases, within 23 days here-from and that a copy of the petition herein and of this order be served by the clerk of this Court by certified-mail on the respondent-warden and the attorney-general and reporter of Tennessee. Rule 4, Rules—§ 2254 Cases. The noticed slow movement of the mail provides good cause for the additional time allowed. 28 U.S.C. § 2243; Rule 81(a)(2), F.R.Civ.P.

ON MOTION TO DISMISS

The respondent answered, see order of January 6, 1987, and moved this Court to dismiss the petition herein on the ground of the applicant’s failure to have exhausted his available state-remedies. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b). It is the respondent’s contention that a hearing on Mr. Powell’s petition for the state writ of habeas corpus was held on January 16, 1987 and that such petition was dismissed by the Criminal Court of Tennessee for its 22d judicial district (encompassing Giles County), although as of January 27, 1987, the formal order of dismissal thereof had not been signed and entered by the trial court.

The respondent asserts that, before this Court may entertain the petition herein, Mr. Powell is required to exhaust his claims presented herein by presenting them on appeal to the courts of Tennessee. “Ordinarily an application for habeas corpus by one detained under a state court judgment of conviction for crime will be entertained by a federal court only after all state remedies available, including all appellate remedies * * * have been exhausted.” Ex parte Hawk, 321 U.S. 114, 116-117, 64 S.Ct. 448, 450[5], 88 L.Ed. 572 (1944).

It appears however, that Mr. Powell has no available state-remedy. The Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure require that an order, dismissing Mr. Powell’s state petition for habeas corpus, be entered by the trial court before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals may consider his claims. Tenn.R.App.P. 3(b). Thus, the Court hereby FINDS that Mr. Powell has exhausted his available state remedies,

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Related

Ex Parte Hawk
321 U.S. 114 (Supreme Court, 1944)
WILWORDING Et Al. v. SWENSON, WARDEN
404 U.S. 249 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Picard v. Connor
404 U.S. 270 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Duckworth v. Serrano
454 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1981)
Willie Gray Dixon, Jr. v. State of Florida
388 F.2d 424 (Fifth Circuit, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
660 F. Supp. 82, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/powell-v-livesay-tnmd-1987.