State v. Ames

190 So. 2d 223, 249 La. 685, 1966 La. LEXIS 2032
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 30, 1966
DocketNo. 48165
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 190 So. 2d 223 (State v. Ames) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Ames, 190 So. 2d 223, 249 La. 685, 1966 La. LEXIS 2032 (La. 1966).

Opinions

HAWTHORNE, Justice.

On February 7, 1963, a bill of information was filed in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court for the Parish of East Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana, charging John Edward Ames with armed robbery under R.S. 14:64. On the same day, without counsel and without having been informed of his right to counsel, he was arraigned, pleaded guilty, and, having waived the legal delay for sentencing, was sentenced by the court to IS years at hard labor in the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

While he was in the state penitentiary, Ames applied in proper person to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Baton Rougé Division, for habeas corpus. After a hearing that court on July 27, 1965, more than two years after Ames began serving his prison term, held that the conviction and sentence by the state court were invalid and contrary to law, and accordingly should be reversed and set aside. The federal court set aside the conviction under the holding of the United States Supreme Court in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799, decided on March 18, 1.963, in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a person charged with a [689]*689felony in a state court is entitled to be represented by counsel, that he must be advised of that right by the court before he is arraigned, and that his mere failure to request counsel cannot be construed as an intelligent waiver of that constitutionally guaranteed right. Although the defendant Ames had been sentenced before the decision in the Gideon case and was in the penitentiary at the time that decision was rendered, the federal district court stated that it was bound to give the principles established in the Gideon case a retroactive effect because the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, so held in Williams v. State of Alabama, 341 F.2d 777, decided on February 16, 1965, about five months before the federal court’s decision in the habeas corpus proceeding in the instant case.

In reversing and setting aside Ames’s conviction and sentence the United States district court made it clear that its decision did not mean that petitioner was to be set free, but that it merely meant “that the State of Louisiana must, within a reasonable time, say thirty (30) days, either proceed against plaintiff [Ames], according to law, or in the absence of such proceeding, dismiss him from custody”. The 30-day period in which to try Ames was later extended by the United States district court through the month of September, 1965.1

After being returned from the state penitentiary to the East Baton Rouge Parish prison, Ames, represented by appointed counsel, was arraigned in open court on September 21, 1965, and pleaded not guilty, and his case was fixed for trial for September 27, 1965. The district judge, however, of his own motion subsequently re-fixed the trial for September 30, 1965.2

On September 23, after arraignment and plea of not guilty, counsel for defendant filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Louisiana district court. The judge after a hearing denied the application for the writ.3 Certain preliminary pleas and motions were filed, taken up, and overruled. Defendant was then tried before a jury, convicted, and sentenced to a term of 30 years at hard labor in the penitentiary. From this conviction and sentence he has appealed.

The first bill of éxception, Bill No. 1-A, was taken to the overruling by the district court of Ames’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed September 23, 1965, in which he alleged that he had been denied certain specified constitutional rights. As stated previously, the application for habeas corpus was denied by the court before de[691]*691fendant’s trial on the armed robbery charge, but this bill was incorporated in the transcript filed in the appeal taken from defendant’s conviction and sentence. By this means defendant seeks appellate review of a judgment of the district court denying him a writ of habeas corpus in a criminal case.

This court is without authority under the law to review on this,appeal the judgment of the district court denying the writ of habeas corpus, for it is well settled in the law and the jurisprudence of this state that the Supreme Court does not have appellate jurisdiction of habeas corpus proceedings in criminal cases. Art. 7, Sec. 10, La. Const, of 1921; State ex rel. McIsaac v. Sigler, 236 La. 773, 109 So.2d 89, and authorities there cited.

Before trial defendant- filed a plea of former jeopardy which was overruled by the district judge, and Bill of Exception No. 1-B was reserved. Defendant Ames points out that he pleaded guilty on February 7, 1963, to the bill of information charging armed robbery and at this time was sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the penitentiary, and that this conviction and sentence were annulled and set aside on constitutional grounds by the United States district court. ' He argues that he cannot again be tried for .this same offense, relying on the provision of Article 1, Section 9, of the Louisiana . Constitution that “ *' * * nor shall any person be twice put in jeopardy of life or liberty for the same offense, except on his own application for a new trial, or where there is a mistrial, or a motion in arrest of judgment is sustained”. It is his contention that h¡6 former conviction of armed robbery constitutes jeopardy, and that he cannot be retried for this same offense because no new trial was granted on his application, there was no mistrial, and there was no motion in arrest of judgment sustained. In short, he contends that he is not within any of the exceptions set forth in the Constitution which permit a person to be twice'1 put in jeopardy for the same offense.

In considering the question here presented we must remember that defendant’s conviction and sentence of February 7, 1963, have been declared invalid, reversed, and set aside by the United States district court because his constitutional right to counsel was infringed, and that the federal court ordered the State of Louisiana to take further proceedings against him within a time fixed in its order or discharge him from custody. In accordance with this order the State proceeded to try the defendant under the same bill of information charging the offense to which he had' previously pleaded guilty. The question to determine is whether under these circumstances the defendant 'Ames has been twice put in jeopardy.

[693]*693R.S. 15 '279 sets forth what circumstances are required to constitute former jeopardy. This statute reads in pertinent part:

“To constitute former jeopardy it is necessary * * * that the proceedings ending in the former acquittal or conviction were valid * *

Clearly, then, the accused has not been twice put in jeopardy for the same offense. The proceedings ending in his former conviction were invalid, having been so declared by the federal court, and consequently do not constitute former jeopardy.

The defendant contends that the Legislature by R.S. 15:279, quoted in part above, attempted to add to the constitutional exceptions which permit a person to be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense, and that the Legislature did not have authority thus to change the Constitution.

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Bluebook (online)
190 So. 2d 223, 249 La. 685, 1966 La. LEXIS 2032, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ames-la-1966.