United States ex rel. Gates v. Twomey

325 F. Supp. 920, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13531
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedApril 29, 1971
DocketNo. 70 C 3070
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 325 F. Supp. 920 (United States ex rel. Gates v. Twomey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States ex rel. Gates v. Twomey, 325 F. Supp. 920, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13531 (N.D. Ill. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

WILL, District Judge.

The petitioner, moving for habeas corpus relief, is presently incarcerated in the Illinois State Penitentiary, Joliet, Illinois, pursuant to convictions for the offenses of armed robbery, attempted rape, and aggravated battery. After a bench trial in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, the petitioner was found guilty and sentenced on January 31, 1968 to concurrent terms of twenty to forty years, ten to fourteen years, and nine to ten years.

The petitioner alleges as grounds for habeas corpus relief that (1) the State employed identification procedures so unnecessarily suggestive as to be conducive to mistaken identification in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, (2) he was improperly denied the right to counsel during a pretrial show-up while the victim was in the hospital, and (3) he was improperly convicted of several offenses arising from the same transaction. These contentions were raised by petitioner in his direct appeal to the Illinois Appellate Court, which affirmed his conviction. People v. Gates, 123 Ill.App.2d 50, 259 N.E.2d 631 (1st Dist.1970). The Supreme Court of Illinois denied petitioner leave to appeal on October 6, 1970.

The respondent, in his return to the rule to show cause issued by this Court, originally stated that petitioner has failed to allege facts sufficient to justify habeas corpus relief. In a supplemental motion to dismiss, the respondent notes that petitioner has not filed any petition for post-conviction relief in the Circuit Court of Cook County, pursuant to 111. Rev.Stat., Ch. 38, Section 122-1 et seq., thus suggesting that petitioner has failed to exhaust his state remedies as required by 28 U.S.C. Section 2254.

Our first line of inquiry, therefore, must be whether petitioner has satisfied the exhaustion requirement of Section 2254. If this requirement has not been met, the petition must be dismissed as premature, Petition of Barry, 388 F.2d 592 (3 Cir. 1968). It is no longer arguable that before a federal court may reach the merits of a habeas corpus petition, the petitioner must (1) have sought relief in each court of the state’s hierarchy in which a remedy is currently available, Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963), and (2) show that precisely those points raised in the federal court were previously raised in the state courts or may no longer there be raised. See, e. g., Cotner v. Henry, 394 F.2d 873 (7 Cir: 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 847, 89 S.Ct. 132, 21 L.Ed. 118; United States ex rel. Gonzales v. Follette, 414 F.2d 788 (2 Cir. 1969). As petitioner has attempted to seek direct review of his conviction in the Illinois Supreme Court, his only currently available state remedy is post-conviction relief. Because he has failed to seek such relief, this omission must be deemed a failure to exhaust his state remedies if, but only if, he could now raise those contentions which he urges herein in the post-conviction hearing.

[922]*922The Illinois Post-Conviction Act, by its terms, appears to be an attempt upon the part of the Illinois Legislature to provide convicted criminal defendants with an opportunity to raise contentions of constitutional deprivations in a collateral attack upon their convictions even if such attack includes issues already raised on direct appeal. Notwithstanding the seemingly clear language of the Act, however, the Supreme Court of Illinois has held in repeated decisions construing the Act that a state prisoner may not collaterally attack his conviction in a post-conviction proceedings if the allegations he raises concerning a denial of his constitutional rights at trial were fully reviewed on direct appeal. The Illinois Supreme Court, thus, forecloses secondary collateral attacks upon a conviction by holding that the Illinois Post-Conviction Act is not intended to be used as a device to obtain another hearing upon a claim of denial of constitutional rights where there has already been an earlier full and final review of the issues raised in the post-conviction proceedings; any claim which has been given full review by the reviewing court is barred by res judicata principles. People v. Collins, 39 Ill.2d 286, 235 N.E.2d 570 (1968); People v. Hill, 39 Ill.2d 61, 233 N.E.2d 546 (1968); People v. Cox, 34 Ill.2d 66, 213 N.E.2d 524 (1966). These decisions each dealt with appeals from dismissed post-conviction petitions that had raised constitutional issues which had been disposed of by the Illinois Supreme Court in a previous direct appeal or on a writ of error. In these cases, the Supreme Court refused to re-hear the issues on the merits, applied the doctrine of res judicata, and affirmed the dismissals below of the post-conviction petitions.

If the Illinois courts confined the doctrine of res judicata to the situation wherein a post-conviction petitioner was denied relief only when he has had a prior review by the Supreme Court, the petitioner herein would not be barred from raising his constitutional claims in a post-conviction proceeding because he has had direct review on the merits only in the Appellate Court. The Supreme Court of Illinois, however, has recently expanded the doctrine of res judicata to apply to any post-conviction proceeding in which constitutional claims are raised which have previously been afforded direct review on appeal by either the Supreme Court or an Appellate Court. People v. Kamsler, 39 Ill.2d 73, 233 N.E.2d 415 (1968); People v. Bright, 42 Ill.2d 331, 247 N.E.2d 426 (1969); People v. Arnold, 45 Ill.2d 113, 256 N.E.2d 809 (1970).

In Kamsler and Arnold, the defendants were convicted in the Circuit Court, their convictions affirmed by the Appellate Court of Illinois, and the Supreme Court of Illinois denied their petitions for leave to appeal. In Bright, the defendant was convicted, the conviction was affirmed by the Appellate Court, but no petition for leave to appeal was ever filed with the Supreme Court. After finishing their direct appeals, the defendants filed post-conviction petitions and were denied hearings by the trial courts. The Supreme Court of Illinois held in each ease that the claims adjudicated by the Appellate Court were res judicata and post-conviction proceedings could not thereafter be had. In Kamsler, the Court stated; “It is well settled that where a person convicted of a crime has taken an appeal from the judgment of conviction on a complete record, the judgment of the reviewing court is res judicata as to all issues actually decided by the court * * * ” 233 N.E.2d at 416. In Arnold, the Court held that as the petitioner was simply attempting to argue, in somewhat altered form, the same questions originally presented to the trial court and reviewed by the Appellate Court, those issues had become res judicata and post-conviction relief would not lie. See, also, People v. Price, 44 Ill.2d 332, 255 N.E.2d 395 (1970); People v. Derengowski, 44 Ill.2d 476, 256 N.E.2d 455 (1970); People v. Harrison, 46 Ill.2d 159, 263 N.E.2d 87 (1970); People v.

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325 F. Supp. 920, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13531, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-gates-v-twomey-ilnd-1971.