Smith v. Olson

44 F. Supp. 456, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3013
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedApril 8, 1942
DocketNo. 146 Civil
StatusPublished

This text of 44 F. Supp. 456 (Smith v. Olson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Olson, 44 F. Supp. 456, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3013 (D. Neb. 1942).

Opinion

DELEHANT, District Judge.

On March 5, 1942, this court entered an order allowing the petitioner herein to file in this proceeding his Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus and Forma Pauperis Affidavit; ordering the respondent to show cause against the issuance of the writ by the 16th day of March, 1942, and allowing the petitioner ten days after such showing within which to file a countershowing in opposition thereto. The petition and affidavit were filed forthwith and the showing and countershowing were both seasonably filed. Both as a companion filing with his petition, and in the body of his counter-showing, the petitioner presents, in fairly comprehensive detail, the legal precedents allegedly sustaining his petition. The court has examined and maturely considered the record thus riiade and considers that it clearly necessitates the summary disposition of the case.

The petitioner here is the prevailing party in Smith v. O’Grady, 312 U.S. 329, 61 S.Ct. 572, 85 L.Ed. 859; but the case made upon the pleadings now before the court is void of the imposing allegations of fact, examined by the United States Supreme Court in Smith v. O’Grady, supra, of which more presently.

In his petition for a writ, the petitioner alleges that he is imprisoned and restrained of his liberty unlawfully, without due process of law and in violation of the fourteenth amendment of the constitution of the United States. In an evident interpretation of his plight — as distinguished from any factual allegation — he asserts also that he is held in slavery in violation of the thirteenth amendment of the constitution of the United States.

Through alleged copies of an information filed in the District Court of Valley County, Nebraska, and a journal entry of the proceedings of that court, it appears from the petition itself that on September 27, 1932, the County Attorney of Valley County, Nebraska, filed in the District Court of that county an information in due form charging the petitioner with the offense of burglary with explosives under Section 28-543, C.S.Neb.1929, and that on the same day he appeared in that court, waived preliminary hearing and requested immediate arraignment, was arraigned, pleaded guilty to the information as charged, and was sentenced to confinement in the Nebraska penitentiary for the period of twenty years. His confinement is admittedly in pursuance of that plea and the judgment or sentence entered thereon.

The petitioner in his pleading makes the following — and only the following — assignments of invalidity in his sentence and confinement:

1. The trial court was without jurisdiction in that the petitioner had not had “notice of ten days from the trial court that he [458]*458was to be arraigned to be informed of the nature of the accusation” against him which the plaintiff claims is jurisdictionally required under Section 27-317, C.S.Neb.1929.
2. The trial court failed to complete the court by assigning counsel to advise petitioner of his proper defense to make at the arraignment, in support of which the sixth amendment of the constitution of the United States is cited.
3. The petitioner has never been found “guilty” of the offense charged in the information.
4. The petitioner was deprived of the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation charged in the information.

The respondent in his “Objections”, by way of showing against the issuance of the writ, alleges the validity of petitioner’s confinement and in support thereof sets out a copy of the commitment under which it was made, which is exhaustive in its recitals and discloses an explicit history of all proper admonitory cautions contemplated by the law on the arraignment, plea of guilty and sentence of a defendant charged with crime. The respondent then sets out in detail the history of the case of Smith v. O’Grady, supra, and, with significant consequence, the proceedings in that case which have been had in pursuance of the opinion of the United States Supreme Court, including a copy of exhaustive and minute findings of fact and conclusions of law, and an order of dismissal by Honorable J. H. Broady, Judge of the District Court of Lancaster County, Nebraska, under date of July 16, 1941, upon a trial of Smith v. O’Grady, supra, on the merits. Respecting the final phase of that action it appears that the District Court of Lancaster County, Nebraska, tried the issues in detail, heard evidence upon them, and resolved every factual and legal question unfavorably to the petitioner. That judgment is not denied in the countershowing of the petitioner and it may be considered as the final order in the proceeding in which it was rendered.

In its ruling upon the petition presently before it, the court, fully mindful of the limitation upon the principle of res adjudicata that is implicit in Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U.S. 103, 55 S.Ct. 340, 79 L.Ed. 791, 98 A.L.R. 406; Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461; Walker v. Johnston, 312 U.S. 275, 61 S.Ct. 574, 85 L.Ed. 830; and Smith v. O’Grady, supra, might nevertheless confidently rely upon that principle. In Smith v. O’Grady, supra, every issue here presented was raised, and along with sundry additional issues of fact, was resolved adversely to the petitioner. The petitioner has had his constitutional “day in court” upon every question he now suggests. And this court will not relitigate his claim.

But the grounds now urged for the issuance of the writ are much narrower than those which evoked the opinion in Smith v. O’Grady, supra. And they are considered to be exclusively legal and to raise no issue of fact. Nor are they or any of them well taken.

1. In his demand for “notice of ten days under section 27-317, C.S.Neb. 1929,” petitioner neglects the fact that his sentence was received in open court in the county in which he was charged with the offense, whereas Section 27-317, C.S.Neb. 1929, is a grant of power to judges of the district court of Nebraska sitting in chambers any where within their respective districts. Besides, the element of notice not being a jurisdictional step but rather a procedural precaution after jurisdiction has attached, may be waived by the parties. Erwin v. Brunke, 133 Neb. 745, 277 N.W. 48.

2. The charge that the trial court “failed to complete the court” by assigning counsel to petitioner falls far short of an allegation of a culpable judicial failure in that behalf. But, considering it most favorably to the petitioner, the record before the court demonstrates its falsity.

The recitals of the commitment, which are not impeached, include the following: “The defendant, Albert Smith, appeared in open court stating that he had been fully advised as to his rights and that he desired to waive service of a copy of the information and time to plead thereto, and that he waived preliminary examination, that he did not desire counsel, and that he was ready to plead to the information filed against him.”

And Judge Broady’s findings in the trial on the merits of Smith v. O’Grady, supra, contain the following conclusive statement:

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Related

Mooney v. Holohan
294 U.S. 103 (Supreme Court, 1935)
Johnson v. Zerbst
304 U.S. 458 (Supreme Court, 1938)
Walker v. Johnston
312 U.S. 275 (Supreme Court, 1941)
Smith v. O'GRADY
312 U.S. 329 (Supreme Court, 1941)
Leiby v. State
113 N.W. 125 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1907)
Erwin v. Brunke
277 N.W. 48 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1938)

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Bluebook (online)
44 F. Supp. 456, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3013, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-olson-ned-1942.