United States ex rel. Harden v. Follette

333 F. Supp. 371, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10619
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedAugust 10, 1970
DocketNo. 67 Civ. 4491
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 333 F. Supp. 371 (United States ex rel. Harden v. Follette) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York 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. Harden v. Follette, 333 F. Supp. 371, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10619 (S.D.N.Y. 1970).

Opinion

OPINION

MOTLEY, District Judge.

This proceeding is before the court on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus involving three convictions of petitioner by the courts of New York.

Initially, petitioner filed a habeas corpus petition attacking only his conviction of May 11, 1966, which this court denied on March 29, 1968 on the ground that since petitioner was not challenging the validity of a prior conviction and sentence of March 26, 1965 which he was then and is presently serving, habeas corpus would not lie, citing McNally v. Hill, 293 U.S. 131, 55 S.Ct. 24, 79 L.Ed. 238 (1934) and United States ex rel. Burke v. Fay, 231 F.Supp. 385 (S.D.N.Y. 1964).

Petitioner thereupon filed a pro se motion in the Court of Appeals for a certificate of probable cause which was granted on January 20, 1969 and the case remanded for a hearing. After this court’s ruling of March 29, 1968, the Supreme Court on May 28, 1968 in Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54, 88 S.Ct. 1549, 20 L.Ed.2d 426 (1968) expressly overruled McNally v. Hill, supra, and held that a prisoner serving consecutive sentences is “in custody” under any one of them for the purposes of the federal habeas corpus statute 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (c) (3). After the case was remanded, this court appointed counsel for petitioner. Petitioner, however, now also challenges the validity of his 1965 conviction and his 1958 conviction, which he has already served.

On January 8, 1958, petitioner was convicted and sentenced to an indeterminate term with a five year maximum after pleading guilty to forgery in the second degree. He served three years.

A jury found petitioner guilty of robbery in the first degree and rape in the first degree (which occurred on July 17, 1964) in February 1965. Petitioner was sentenced on March 26, 1965 to 15 to 40 years as a multiple felony offender on the robbery count and an indeterminate sentence of one day to life on the rape [373]*373count. On April 11, 1969, petitioner was given a new psychiatric examination and a hearing pursuant to Specht v. Patterson, 386 U.S. 605, 87 S.Ct. 1209, 18 L.Ed.2d 326 (1967). The court resentenced him to one day to life on that day. Petitioner is presently appealing that sentence in the state court and withdrew the Specht hearing and sentence question in the instant petition for habeas corpus.

On May 11, 1966, after petitioner had begun serving his sentences on his 1965 convictions, a jury found him guilty of two counts of robbery in the first degree, two counts of grand larceny in the second degree, two counts of assault in the first degree, and one count of possession of dangerous weapons, instruments and appliances. For these offenses, which occurred on August 17, 1964, plaintiff was sentenced as a multiple felony offender to 25 to 60 years on the robbery counts. The court suspended sentence as to each of the other counts. The court expressly made the sentences on the robbery counts concurrent with each other but consecutive to any other sentence on any other indictment.

I. The 1958 Conviction

Petitioner has already served his sentence under the 1958 conviction. He challenges that conviction because it was used as the basis for his sentencing as a multiple felony offender at the 1965 sentence and conviction. Petitioner makes three claims: 1) ineffective assistance of counsel; 2) unconstitutional guilty plea; 3) failure to be given notice of right to appeal. Petitioner has commenced two separate and distinct post conviction proceedings arising out of his 1958 conviction. In November 1966, petitioner submitted his first application for a writ of coram nobis to the. Suffolk County Court on the grounds that he was denied effective assistance of counsel at his arraignment, that he had ineffective counsel retained for him by his family, that a “deal” was made as to sentence, and that his confession was involuntary.

On January 5, 1967, the Suffolk County Court denied his coram nobis petition. The Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed on June 5, 1967. 28 A.D. 2d 827, 282 N.Y.S.2d 457. On September 28, 1967, leave to appeal was denied.

Petitioner thereafter commenced a second eoram nobis petition urging that the sentence imposed upon him in January, 1958 be vacated and that he be resentenced nunc pro tunc so that he might file a notice of appeal. On October 6, 1969, his second petition was denied. The appeal is pending before the Appellate Division, Second Department.

Respondent argues that petitioner has not exhausted his state remedies because petitioner’s second coram nobis petition which raises a new issue (notice of right to appeal) is currently pending before the appellate courts and because new evidentiary facts are presented for the first time in petitioner’s, federal habeas corpus petition.

Respondent’s claim that petitioner has failed to exhaust his state remedies is without merit. Petitioner has pressed his claims here of lack of effective assistance of counsel and his involuntary confession in every state tribunal and has alleged no new facts; instead, petitioner asks to call two additional witnesses at a requested evidentiary hearing to corroborate the facts set out in his affidavit.

Petitioner’s principal ground for his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is that retained counsel did not contact petitioner or his relatives until a few minutes before the trial. Trial counsel’s brief consultation with petitioner does not, in itself, mean that petitioner was denied effective assistance of counsel. Petitioner is not unconstitutionally denied effective assistance of counsel unless “the proceedings which followed were, as a result, ‘a farce and a mockery of justice.’ ” United States v. Tribote, 297 F.2d 598, 601 (2d Cir. 1961); see Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970). The transcript of the guilty [374]*374plea shows that the resultant proceedings were not “a mockery of justice.” Counsel succeeded in obtaining the district attorney’s acquiesence to petitioner’s guilty plea to only one count of a 21 count forgery indictment in the face of signed statements confessing to eight different incidents in which he forged a check.

Petitioner’s allegation, without anything more, that his illegally obtained confession induced his plea of guilty cannot be an independent ground for attacking the guilty plea. McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970). Instead, it is another aspect of ineffective assistance of counsel. Id. 397 U.S. at 771, 90 S.Ct. at 1449, 25 L.Ed.2d at 773. Was counsel’s advice to plead guilty in light of petitioner’s present allegations that his confession was coerced “within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases” ? Id.

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333 F. Supp. 371, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10619, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-harden-v-follette-nysd-1970.