State Ex Rel. Becker v. Tahash

122 N.W.2d 100, 265 Minn. 458, 1963 Minn. LEXIS 687
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedMay 29, 1963
Docket38,874
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 122 N.W.2d 100 (State Ex Rel. Becker v. Tahash) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Becker v. Tahash, 122 N.W.2d 100, 265 Minn. 458, 1963 Minn. LEXIS 687 (Mich. 1963).

Opinion

Rogosheske, Justice.

Appeal from the district court’s order denying a petition for a writ of habeas corpus without an evidentiary hearing on the ground that it is sham and frivolous.

The question presented is whether the petition reveals sufficient cause for a hearing on the merits. State ex rel. Adams v. Rigg, 252 Minn. 283, 89 N. W. (2d) 898, certiorari denied, 358 U. S. 899, 79 S. Ct. 224, 3 L. ed. (2d) 149. 1

*459 Petitioner was arraigned and entered a plea of guilty to forgery in the second degree before the Nobles County District Court on October 17, 1960. He had been arrested on this charge in February 1960 at Fort Scott, Kansas, returned to Minnesota, lodged in jail, and thereafter bound over to district court and released on bail from the first part of April 1960 until shortly before his arraignment and plea. After his plea, and before a presentence investigation was ordered and sentence imposed, he submitted to questioning under oath. In his answers he declared he was a resident of Sioux City, Iowa, 40 years old, married, the father of four children, and his occupation was mechanic and truck driver. He also readily admitted that he had been previously convicted of three offenses — larceny in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1941; larceny of a motor vehicle in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1944; and obtaining money by false pretenses in Canon City, Colorado, in 1958 — and that he had served time in prison for each of these offenses. About a year after his commitment on the present charge, he filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis, which was denied without a hearing. On appeal from that decision we upheld the denial of the writ in an opinion filed June 29, 1962, 2 holding that the petition did not allege errors of the type which would justify the issuance of that writ. The petition for a writ of habeas corpus now before us followed on July 25, 1962.

The information to which petitioner entered his plea charged that he forged the name of Thomas L. Webb to a check for $100 made payable to petitioner himself, dated February 19, 1960, which check he passed in Nobles County. As in his previous petition for coram nobis, petitioner admits that he passed an identical forged check dated February 12, 1960, in Avoca, Murray County, Minnesota, but claims that he did not pass the check described in the information because he was in Iowa on February 19, 1960, the date of that check. The petition further alleges that petitioner was denied due process of law in that, being in fact innocent of the charge, he was induced to enter a plea of guilty by means *460 of misrepresentations and threats that he would receive a mandatory life sentence as a habitual offender if he pleaded not guilty; that his court-appointed attorneys participated in the misrepresentations and duress in collusion with the county attorney; that one of his two court-appointed counsel, a resident of Iowa, was not notified and, therefore, not present when sentence was imposed on December 30, 1960. Petitioner also complains that he was not personally invited to make a statement before sentence was imposed in order to call the court’s attention to his declaration of innocence which he claims was contained in the written presentence investigation report, which the judge had before him when sentence was pronounced. In support of the petition, he submitted the entire commitment record, including a verbatim transcript of the proceeding resulting in his conviction and sentence, the accuracy of which he does not challenge. He also submitted extrinsic evidence by way of affidavits of his wife, his mother, and an Iowa hotelkeeper tending to support his claim that he was in fact present in Iowa on February 19, 1960, although registered at the hotel under an assumed name. In addition, there is attached a copy of a letter from his Iowa counsel confirming that he was not notified nor present at sentencing and that petitioner had, at one conference before his plea, declared his innocence of the charge.

The only part of the petition which alleges a possible deprivation of constitutional rights is the claim that petitioner’s plea of guilty was induced either by a promise that he would not be prosecuted as a habitual offender or a threat that, if he stood trial, such a prosecution would ensue. Inducement by promises or threats destroys the essential voluntary nature of a plea and could amount to a denial of due process, ousting the court of jurisdiction to enter a valid judgment of conviction. If such a claim can be established by proper proof, a prisoner might be entitled to discharge under a writ of habeas corpus. To test the sufficiency of the petition, were we to assume that petitioner could establish this claim as true, a hearing on the petition would clearly be required. Here, however, the record, including a verbatim transcript of the proceedings resulting in the plea and sentence, was submitted in support of the petition and must be considered as a part thereof. Even though *461 not so submitted, under a well-established rule — developed largely to give full and fair consideration where a petitioner appears pro se — the claims alleged are viewed in the light of the entire official record. 3 It must be borne in mind that there is a presumption of validity accorded to the record of the proceedings resulting in the judgment of conviction unless a jurisdictional defect appears on the face of the record. 4 In a habeas corpus proceeding, extrinsic evidence submitted in support of a petition which contradicts the facts disclosed by the record is inadmissible to establish a jurisdictional defect. 5 Since no error affecting the jurisdiction of the court appears on the face of the record, and since the accuracy thereof is neither challenged by petition nor can be contradicted by extrinsic evidence, the facts shown in the record must control. The fatal deficiency of the petition is that the allegation that his plea was induced by promises or threats is in direct conflict with petitioner’s testimony when he entered the plea.

Before petitioner was arraigned, two counsel were appointed to represent him. One was appointed from the local bar and one, a resident of Sioux City, Iowa (also petitioner’s residence), was appointed as an associate, presumably at petitioner’s request. After the information was read, the court, upon inquiry, was informed that both counsel had had an opportunity to confer with him. Thereupon, the following occurred:

“The Court: Mr. Becker, from what Mr. Mott and Mr. Brown have told you, do you feel that you know what your rights are and the possible consequences of a plea of guilty?
“The Defendant: Yes sir.
“The Court: Have any promises been made to you if you would make a plea of guilty?
“The Defendant: No sir.
“The Court: Has the County Attorney or anybody else promised you leniency if you would plead guilty?
*462 “The Defendant: No.

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Related

Coolen v. State
179 N.W.2d 81 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1970)
STATE EX REL. SANDEN v. Lund
153 N.W.2d 894 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1967)
State v. Judd
152 N.W.2d 724 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1967)
State Ex Rel. Schwirtz v. Tahash
141 N.W.2d 811 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1966)
State Ex Rel. Dinneen v. Tahash
136 N.W.2d 847 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1965)
State Ex Rel. Masters v. Tahash
123 N.W.2d 600 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1963)
State v. Roy
122 N.W.2d 615 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
122 N.W.2d 100, 265 Minn. 458, 1963 Minn. LEXIS 687, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-becker-v-tahash-minn-1963.