Rohrer v. Montana

237 F. Supp. 747, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6939
CourtDistrict Court, D. Montana
DecidedNovember 25, 1964
DocketNo. 1203
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 237 F. Supp. 747 (Rohrer v. Montana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Montana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rohrer v. Montana, 237 F. Supp. 747, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6939 (D. Mont. 1964).

Opinion

MURRAY, Chief Judge.

Petitioner, confined to Montana State Prison pursuant to conviction on his plea of guilty in the District Court of the Twelfth Judicial District of the State of Montana, in and for the County of Hill, on a charge of an infamous crime against nature, seeks leave to file in this court, in forma pauperis, a petition for writ of habeas corpus, and he also seeks the appointment of counsel. Leave to file said petition without pre-payment of costs is granted.

The handwritten petition is long and rambling, contains citations of cases that may or may not be relevant and also has attached to it handwritten copies of orders made by the State District Court, a prior petition to the Montana Supreme Court and the opinion of the Montana Supreme Court. Reproducing copies of the handwritten petition for service on the interested parties is not only impracticable but unnecessary.

Among the allegations of the petition are the following:

“Your petitioner shows that he was apprehended upon date of February 11th 1960. Placed in the County jail of Hill County in the City of Havre, Montana. There was no warrent of arrest served upon this Petitioner untill February 13th 1960. then Petitioner was held and not taken before a proper authority for legal process for commitment untill 4 days later upon date of February 15, 1960. When bond was set at $10,000 dollars. Your Petitioner alleges that he was over wellemed and threatened by the authoritys untill a plea of guilty was obtained. Without counsel or attorny or friend and was finly taken to district court where he was rushed through in hostile fashion in a so called araigment without any protection whatsoever. And where, still ignorant of the searisness of con sequences of a gilty plea and with no full and complete expiation of his legal rights. Your Petitioner was sentenced upon his plea of guilty to a Sentence of 25 years in Montana State Prison upon date of February 19, 1960.
“This Petitioner alleges that he was compelled to incriminate himself while incompetent for arraigment and with out councel by being over wellemed by statements and threats made by officials and confindment untill he, the Petitioner had not the will to remain silent.
* * * * *
[749]*749“This Petitioner alleges unlawfull comitment and detention with out proper service of warrent for arrest, because of being apprehended and held without bond. No prelemnary hearing or services of a proper warrent for arrest ior a period of about 2 days. Apprehended February 11th, 1960, and warrent served upon date of February 13th 1960.
“This Petitioner was not permitted to contact anyone for help before araigment on date of February 19th 1960. then the records show a minute entry that he the defendant waived couneel. Your petitioner alleges that he was and still is incompetent to appear in any court without aid of an attorny. Petitioner has had little schooling and no prior ■experience in court. And was completly over wellemed by all that had happened. So mutch so that an effective appointment of adquete counsel should have been done as a matter of course by trial court. This Petitioner shows an appended order will bear wittness that an appeal was tried for — as well as appointment of councel in both courts.”

It further appears from the petition that petitioner sought leave in 1964 in the District Court of Hill County to withdraw his plea of guilty upon the foregoing grounds, which was denied by order of June 10, 1964. The petitioner then sought leave in the Montana Supreme Court to withdraw his plea of guilty, which leave was denied in a per curiam opinion by the Montana Supreme Court, dated August 4, 1964. Petition of Arthur William Rohrer, Mont., 394 P.2d 252.

In order that unlettered prisoners without friends or funds may be protected, legalistic requirements in examining applications should be disregarded. Darr v. Burford, 339 U.S. 200, 70 S.Ct. 587, 94 L.Ed. 761, Fulwood v. Clemmer, 111 U.S.App.D.C. 184, 295 F.2d 171. Applying this principle, it seems that the above quoted allegations of the petition are sufficient to charge petitioner’s plea of guilty was coerced and not freely self-determined, which, if proved, would be a violation of petitioner’s right to due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment. Machibroda v. United States, 368 U.S. 487, 493, 82 S.Ct. 510, 7 L.Ed.2d 473, Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U.S. 534, 544, 81 S.Ct. 735, 5 L.Ed.2d 760. The above quoted allegations of the petition, construed liberally, are also sufficient to charge that the petitioner was not competent to waive counsel and did not intelligently and understandingly waive counsel, which, if proved, would be a denial of his right to counsel under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. See Carnley v. Cochran, 369 U.S. 506, 516, 82 S.Ct. 884, 8 L.Ed.2d 70.

It further appears that petitioner has exhausted his state court remedies as required by 28 U.S.C. § 2254, and that there are no further state court remedies available to petitioner at the present time, and under Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837, petitioner is now entitled to come to this court for vindication of his federal constitutional rights and that this court has jurisdiction of the petition under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 2241.

In circumstances such as this, where a state prisoner alleges violations of his federal constitutional rights, the cases of Fay v. Noia, supra, Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 and Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 10 L.Ed.2d 148, make it clear that this court must grant a hearing on the claimed violations unless this court is satisfied that the state court has “after a full hearing reliably found the relevant facts” against the petitioner’s contention. If the state court has, after a hearing, reliably found the relevant facts against the petitioner’s contention, this court would be entitled to deny petitioner relief on the basis of the state court determination. See Jones v. State of Montana, 232 F.Supp. 771, D.C.Mont.1964.

[750]*750From the record, the court cannot say that the state courts of Montana have, after hearing, reliably found the relevant facts against petitioner’s allegations that he was denied his federal constitutional rights in the respects above mentioned. It does not appear that petitioner was granted a hearing in either the State District Court or the State Supreme Court.

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Related

State v. Sather
564 P.2d 1306 (Montana Supreme Court, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
237 F. Supp. 747, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6939, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rohrer-v-montana-mtd-1964.