United States ex rel. Thompson v. Dye

113 F. Supp. 807, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2658
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 3, 1953
DocketNo. 11525
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 113 F. Supp. 807 (United States ex rel. Thompson v. Dye) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania 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. Thompson v. Dye, 113 F. Supp. 807, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2658 (W.D. Pa. 1953).

Opinion

MARSH, District Judge.

The relator, Cleveland Thompson, was convicted of murder on January 20, 1950, and the death penalty was imposed. For a history of prior proceedings see D.C., 103 F.Supp. 776; affirmed, 3 Cir., 203 F.2d 429; certiorari denied 1953, 345 U.S. 960, 73 S.Ct. 946. He subsequently filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, alleging that the prosecuting officers suppressed evidence favorable to him. The petition was denied without a hearing. He then filed a petition for a stay of execution in the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court, after reviewing a proposed petition for certiorari, denied the stay.1

On this state of the record, we found that he had exhausted his state -court remedies. We were persuaded that if the allegations of the petition were proved, a federal question involving due process was presented. See United States ex rel. Almeida v. Baldi, D.C.E.D.Pa.1951, 104 F.Supp. 321, affirmed, 3 Cir., 1952, 195 F.2d 815. We, therefore, out of an abundance of caution, issued a stay of execution, ordered the District Attorney of Allegheny County to answer the petition, and set the case down for hearing. The relator’s contention that he was denied due process is without merit.

. After hearing and upon due and careful -consideration, the court enters the following

Findings of Fact

1. The relator was arrested shortly after 11:00 P. M. on September 13, 1949. At that time, he was somewhat under the influence of alcohol. This fact was known to various members of the police force and [809]*809Samuel Strauss, Esq., the Assistant District Attorney in charge of the prosecution. The degree of intoxication of relator at that time is a matter of dispute among the persons who saw him.

2. There are those who might have testified that relator was intoxicated at the time of the killing2 and shortly thereafter,3 as well as at the time of the arrest.4

3. Immediately prior to his arrest, relator was involved in a barroom -brawl. Bobbie Richardson, the bartender, described the scuffle wherein three men subdued Thompson and took his gun — the murder weapon. Ri-chardson stated the scuffle lasted from two to five minutes and that in the melee all of the participants fell to the floor. As a result relator’s shirt was torn, he was perspiring profusely, and he was in a thoroughly disheveled condition- when arrested.

4. After Thompson had been subdued, Patrolmen Stanley W. Dubis and William H. Heagy, in answer to a telephone call, arrived and took relator in a police car to No. 2 Police Station. Later Heagy transported him to No. 1 Police Station. Heagy had to subdue Thompson on this trip.

5. Both Heagy and Dubis noticed an odor of alcohol about the relator. Heagy concluded, from his observation, that relator was in a crazed -condition and insane. Dubis, on the contrary, concluded that the relator was perfectly normal and so testified at the trial. It is apposite to note that he was not then cross-examined as to Thompson’s condition. At the habeas corpus hearing he testified that Thompson meekly submitted to arrest and conveyance to No. 2 Police Station; he did not accompany the prisoner to No. 1 Station.

6. George W. Purvis, a police officer assigned to the homicide division, saw the relator about midnight. Relator was standing up and holding on to the bars of his cell. He talked to Purvis but his statements were so confused that the police officer décided to postpone the routine interrogation. This observation was incorporated into a lengthy report filed by Homicide Officers Purvis, Co-yne and Corcoran, a copy of 'which, was sent to the District Attorney’s office prior to trial.

7. A pretrial conference was held three days prior to trial. This -conference was attended by members of the homicide squad, Patrolmen Heagy and Dubis, and a number of witnesses.

8. Heagy testified that at this confer-. ence he gave to Strauss a detailed description of the relator’s appearance at the time of his arrest and the events that transpired afterward. Heagy further testified that he told Strauss ■ that relator was in a crazed condition and insane. He testified that he repeated the foregoing to Strauss in the hall of the courthouse while the trial was in progress.

9. Strauss denied that this officer had ever said anything to him which indicated that the relator was irresponsible and he denied that the officer had given him a detailed description of the relator’s appearance and -condition.

10. There is no evidence that any one heard Heagy so inform Strauss at the hearing or at any other time prior to or during trial.

11. Both gentlemen are respected public servants of many years standing and undoubtedly both were testifying to their best recollection of what had occurred.

12. Mattie Spells attended the pretrial conference and told Strauss that when the defendant came to her home after the killing he did not recognize her; that his eyes were glassy and he acted as if doped or drunk.

13. The prosecuting attorney and the prosecuting officers had reason to believe from eyewitness ’ accounts of the slaying that the relator at that time 'was in full control of his physical and mental faculties. [810]*810The actions of the relator, as portrayed by the eyewitnesses at the trial, were those of a vicious and merciless killer bent on revenge or robbery or both, who knew exactly what he was doing and how to do it. It was this condition of the relator of which the prosecutors were acutely aware prior to the trial, and the. conclusion of Officer Heagy' that the relator was in a crazed condition three or four hours after the shooting, assuming that it was related to those in authority, was not competent nor sufficiently impressive to change the prosecution’s theory of the case. Likewise, the statements and conclusions of Mattie Spells, to some extent a hostile witness, could not be expected to make much of an impression at the pretrial. The conclusions of these laymen under the circumstances could not be regarded as competent, important or material, and did not cause the- prosecutors to suspect excessive intoxication, or remotely suspect insanity on the part of the relator at the time of the killing.

14. The arresting officer, Dubis, was called- as a witness for the reason that he had his initials on the murder weapon and cigarettes found on the relator’s person. At the trial Dubis testified that he and Officer Heagy were together when the arrest was made. lie mentioned Heagy’s name three times (204a). Officer Purvis mentioned it once (194a).

15. Although Heagy’s identity had been disclosed at the trial and he had been in court during most of the trial, neither the relator nor his counsel questioned him. It was not ’known to relator or his counsel until on or about June 1, 19S3, that Heagy would have stated that relator was in a crazed, condition or insane at the time of the arrest.

16. Officer Heagy was summoned for the Grand Jury and for the pretrial conference and for the trial. Pie was not called as a witness before the Grand Jury or at the trial. He attended the sessions of the trial which lasted five days.

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Related

Commonwealth v. Rose
321 A.2d 880 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1974)
United States v. Price
258 F.2d 918 (Third Circuit, 1958)
United States ex rel. Thompson v. Price
258 F.2d 918 (Third Circuit, 1958)
Commonwealth v. Thompson
133 A.2d 207 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1957)
United States Ex Rel. Thompson v. Dye
208 F.2d 565 (Third Circuit, 1953)

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Bluebook (online)
113 F. Supp. 807, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2658, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-thompson-v-dye-pawd-1953.