Robert Tickle v. L. R. Summers, Sheriff of Pulaski County, Virginia

270 F.2d 848, 1959 U.S. App. LEXIS 3303
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedOctober 5, 1959
Docket7968
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 270 F.2d 848 (Robert Tickle v. L. R. Summers, Sheriff of Pulaski County, Virginia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robert Tickle v. L. R. Summers, Sheriff of Pulaski County, Virginia, 270 F.2d 848, 1959 U.S. App. LEXIS 3303 (4th Cir. 1959).

Opinion

SOBELOFF, Chief Judge.

The court is called upon by this appeal to examine two orders of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, dismissing a petition and an amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

The petitioner, Robert Tickle, is incarcerated in the jail of Pulaski County, Virginia, under a warrant issued by the Governor of Virginia at the request of the Governor of New York in an extradition proceeding. Petitioner’s removal to New York is sought in order that he may stand trial upon a charge of violating Section 1293-a of the Penal Law of New York, pertaining to the unlawful use of a motor vehicle without the consent of the owner.

Petitioner contends that the warrant, upon which New York based its request for extradition, is defective in that the supporting affidavit (1) omits an essential element of the offense, that petitioner used the motor vehicle “for his own profit, use, or purpose * * * ”, (2) states the value of the motor vehicle too vaguely, and (3) does not show that the affiant had personal information or reasonable ground to believe the facts stated. Therefore, petitioner insists, the Virginia warrant, based on the New York warrant, is also defective and he is entitled to be discharged from the custody of the respondent, the Sheriff of Pulaski County, Virginia.

Furthermore, petitioner alleges that he is not subject to extradition since proceedings involving the same charge were initiated by the New York authorities in 1956 and were abandoned, and that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a second extradition proceeding based on this charge.

We find it unnecessary to consider the merits of these contentions because the petitioner has failed to exhaust the remedies available to him in Virginia. In the leading case of Ex parte Hawk, 1944, 321 U.S. 114, 116, 64 S.Ct. 448, 450, 88 L.Ed. 572, the Supreme Court, after tracing the development of the exhaustion doctrine, stated it as follows:

“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 in the state courts and in this Court by appeal or writ of certiorari, have been exhausted.”

This doctrine has been followed consistently 1 and was embodied in the 1948 recodification of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 2254. 2

*850 Thus, it is clear beyond question that in the ordinary habeas corpus case state remedies must be exhausted before relief may be sought in a federal court. Petitioner asserts, however, that the exhaustion doctrine does not apply where habeas corpus is sought to avoid interstate extradition, and relies on language in an earlier opinion of our own circuit. Day v. Keim, 4 Cir., 1924, 2 F.2d 966. The Third Circuit flatly held in accordance with the contention advanced here. Johnson v. Dye, 3 Cir., 1949, 175 F.2d 250. But the Supreme Court, merely citing Ex parte Hawk, reversed in a brief per curiam opinion. Dye v. Johnson, 338 U.S. 864, 70 S.Ct. 146, 94 L.Ed. 530, rehearing denied 1949, 338 U.S. 896, 70 S.Ct. 238, 94 L.Ed. 551. Since the Supreme Court cited only Ex parte Hawk, a case which bears solely on the exhaustion phase of the Third Circuit’s opinion, Dye v. Johnson has been widely interpreted by the Courts of Appeals as requiring the petitioner to exhaust his state remedies as a prerequisite to seeking habeas corpus in a federal court to avoid extradition. United States ex rel. Jackson v. Ruthazer, 2 Cir., 1950, 181 F.2d 588, certiorari denied 1950, 339 U.S. 980, 70 S.Ct. 1027, 94 L.Ed. 1384; Davis v. O’Connell, 8 Cir., 1950, 185 F.2d 513, certiorari denied, 1951, 341 U.S. 941, 71 S.Ct. 995, 95 L.Ed. 1368; Ross v. Middlebrooks, 9 Cir., 1951, 188 F.2d 308, certiorari denied, 1951, 342 U.S. 862, 72 S.Ct. 90, 96 L.Ed. 649; Johnson v. Matthews, 1950, 86 U.S.App.D.C. 376, 182 F.2d 677, certiorari denied 1950, 340 U.S. 828, 71 S.Ct. 65, 95 L.Ed. 608.

The exhaustion doctrine, it has been well said, “is not a dry rule of logic, but a rule of comity.” Ross v. Middlebrooks, 9 Cir., 1951, 188 F.2d 308, 310, certiorari denied, 1951, 342 U.S. 862, 72 S.Ct. 90, 96 L.Ed. 649. The dual aspects of the rule of comity are served by requiring exhaustion of state remedies: first, comity between the state and federal governments is enhanced by deferring to the state remedial procedures; second, comity between the state governments themselves is promoted, inasmuch as interstate extradition involves cooperation between the states in the enforcement of their respective criminal laws. 3 Thus, insistence upon exhaustion of state remedies in this area has become an established principle of our jurisprudence, and is looked upon as salutary and essential to the maintenance of harmonious federal-state relations in our system of government.

Next, petitioner alleges that even if he must exhaust his state remedies, he need do so only in the demanding state, New York, and not in the asylum state, Virginia. The case law since the decision of the Supreme Court in Dye v. Johnson, however, is to the contrary, United States ex rel. Jackson v. Ruthazer, supra; Davis v. O’Connell, supra.

In a case strikingly similar to the one now before us, decided earlier than Dye v. Johnson but in harmony with it, the First Circuit expounded the reason for the prevailing doctrine as follows:

“Furthermore, support for our conclusion is found in the reason for the rule which is that ‘It is an exceedingly delicate jurisdiction given to the Federal courts by which a person under an indictment in a state court, and subject to its laws, may, by the decision of a single judge of the Federal court, upon a writ of habeas corpus, be taken out of the custody of the officers of the state, and finally discharged therefrom.’ Drury v. Lewis, 200 U.S. 1, 7, 26 S.Ct. 229, 231, 50 L.Ed. 343, *851 cited with approval in Urquhart v. Brown, 205 U.S. 179, 182, 27 S.Ct. 459, 51 L.Ed. 760.

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270 F.2d 848, 1959 U.S. App. LEXIS 3303, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robert-tickle-v-l-r-summers-sheriff-of-pulaski-county-virginia-ca4-1959.