Scobie v. State of Oklahoma

239 F. Supp. 646, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7084
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 26, 1965
DocketCiv. No. 5754
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 239 F. Supp. 646 (Scobie v. State of Oklahoma) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scobie v. State of Oklahoma, 239 F. Supp. 646, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7084 (E.D. Okla. 1965).

Opinion

DAUGHERTY, District Judge.

This case is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a state prisoner. Petitioner has exhausted his available state remedies without relief. Scobie v. Page, Okl.Cr.App., 397 P.2d 520. Petitioner was convicted in the District Court of Tulsa County, Oklahoma, of the offense of uttering a forged instrument after former conviction of a felony and sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment. He was represented by the public defender of Tulsa County at the trial and on appeal. Timely notice of appeal was given, a case-made was obtained at state expense and delivered to the Public Defender as attorney for petitioner on his appeal. Petitioner did not at any time waive or give up his right of appeal. To the contrary, by letters to the Public Defender and the Trial Court, the petitioner insisted upon his appeal. In response, the Public Defender assured the petitioner that his appeal was being perfected and he believed that the conviction could be set aside or the sentence reduced. However, an appeal was not perfected. The Trial Court gave the petitioner his first information that his appeal had not been lodged and that his time to appeal had expired in reply to an inquiry from the petitioner.

This Court appointed counsel herein for the petitioner and held an evidentiary hearing on the habeas petition. The petitioner testified, as did the Public Defender.

From the evidence presented at this hearing it is not disputed that timely notice of appeal was given; the petitioner was an indigent and was so treated by the Trial Court; a case-made at state expense was timely presented to the Public Defender as attorney for the petitioner; the Public Defender acknowledged that he considered himself to be the attorney for the petitioner for an appeal; the petitioner requested an appeal and did not waive his right of appeal; the Public Defender alone made the decision not to lodge the appeal; this decision was not discussed with, concurred in, or re[648]*648ported to the petitioner by the Public Defender. In other words, the Public Defender as appellate attorney for the petitioner on his own made the decision not to appeal, in the face of insistence on an appeal by his client, the petitioner.

It is fundamental that where an appeal is allowed by law, one convicted of an offense is entitled to such an appeal as a matter of right. This does not mean, of course, that frivolous appeals may not be dismissed in the judgment of the court. 22 O.S.A. § 1051; Love v. State, 385 P.2d 512, (Okl.Cr. 1963); Farley v. United States, 354 U.S. 521, 77 S.Ct. 1371, 1 L.Ed.2d 1529; Ellis v. United States, 356 U.S. 674, 78 S.Ct. 974, 2 L.Ed.2d 1060; Coppedge v. United States, 369 U.S. 438, 82 S.Ct. 917, 8 L.Ed. 2d 21; Carroll v. United States, 354 U.S. 394, 77 S.Ct. 1332, 1 L.Ed.2d 1442. It is now clear that an indigent is entitled to the assistance of counsel on appeal. Douglas v. People of State of California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811.

In the case under consideration, the petitioner did not get the appeal he at all times desired. The State of Oklahoma does not resist the writ requested herein by pleading or proof that the appeal of petitioner is frivolous. His attorney, the Public Defender, deliberately failed or refused to lodge such an appeal and made the decision not to appeal on his own. We thus have a case in which a convicted and incarcerated person has been deprived of his right of appeal by his own attorney against his clearly expressed desire to have an appellate review of his conviction and sentence. It is not believed of significance that in this case his attorney was the Public Defender or Court appointed counsel since an attorney, however undertaking representation of an accused, is obliged professionally to do his utmost to protect his client’s rights. If this statement is incorrect then it can only be said that the duty of a public defender or Court appointed attorney is in some way greater than would be expected from privately retained counsel.

We are then confronted with a case of counsel deliberately depriving his client of his absolute constitutional right of appeal against the wishes and without the consent of his client. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief to the petitioner on the ground that the appeal was not taken within the time schedule fixed by state laws for an appeal.

In Douglas v. People of State of California, supra, the United States Supreme Court condemned a California procedure which authorized the appellate court to decide from the record whether or not an indigent person convicted below would have counsel appointed to assist such indigent in perfecting his appeal. In Lane v. Brown, 372 U.S. 477, 83 S.Ct. 768, 9 L.Ed.2d 892, the United States Supreme Court determined that a defendant’s constitutional rights (Fourteenth Amendment) were violated by a state procedure whereby the public defender was vested with exclusive power to determine whether a free transcript should be ordered for an indigent defendant after conviction. In Griffin v. People of State of Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891, the United States Supreme Court held that a state could not deny an indigent convicted of a crime less than capital of a copy of the trial record at public expense for purposes of appeal. In Eskridge v. Washington State Board of Prison Terms and Paroles, 357 U.S. 214, 78 S.Ct. 1061, 2 L.Ed.2d 1269, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the State of Washington had deprived a convicted person of a constitutional right (Fourteenth Amendment) in that it denied him his right of appellate review because he could not afford to pay for the record of his trial. If state legislatures by statutes and state courts and state officials functioning under such statutes cannot deprive an indigent person of his rights, then how can his attorney do so? Obviously, an attorney should not be permitted by his singular decision to deprive his client of his constitutional right of appeal against his wish. In Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, at page 439, 83 S.Ct. 822, at page 849, [649]*6499 L.Ed.2d 837, at page 869, the United States Supreme Court in discussing the waiver of a known right, said:

“A choice made by counsel not participated in by the petitioner does not automatically bar relief. (To habeas corpus). Nor does a state court’s finding of waiver bar independent determination of the question by the federal courts on habeas, for waiver affecting federal rights is a federal question.”

It would appear correct to say that, having the right of appeal, the decision to exercise same is personal to the convicted person and does not reside in his counsel. Moreover, counsel cannot make the decision that an appeal is frivolous or not meritorious. This is for the judgment of the court. Ellis v. United States, supra.

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Bluebook (online)
239 F. Supp. 646, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7084, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scobie-v-state-of-oklahoma-oked-1965.