United States ex rel. Wiggins v. Pennsylvania

302 F. Supp. 845, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9895
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 5, 1969
DocketMisc. No. M-4200
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 302 F. Supp. 845 (United States ex rel. Wiggins v. Pennsylvania) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.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. Wiggins v. Pennsylvania, 302 F. Supp. 845, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9895 (E.D. Pa. 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

KRAFT, District Judge.

Relator, a state prisoner, was convicted upon his plea of guilty, on April 23, 1964, to eleven bills of indictment charging him with aggravated robbery and related crimes. He was sentenced from five to ten years on two indictments and one to ten years on a third. All sentences were to run consecutively. On May 18, 1964, one of the five to ten year sentences was vacated and reduced to one to ten years.

In his present petition, relator alleges: (1) that his plea of guilty was not voluntarily made because he was then undergoing a psyehomotor epileptic seizure; (2) that the state post-conviction judge failed to accord him a full and fair hearing on his petition.

The second ground is untenable, since it does not furnish a basis for federal habeas corpus relief. Any alleged inadequacies in the state post-conviction procedure are immaterial because the relator has been given a full and complete federal evidentiary hearing. Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 316, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963).

Relator also seeks to avail himself of the recent holding of the United States Supreme Court in Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (June 2, 1969), wherein the Court reversed the state court “ ‘because the record does not disclose that the defendant voluntarily and understandingly entered his pleas of guilty.’ ”

In reaching its decision, the Supreme Court cited and quoted with approval1 the holding of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Com. ex rel. West v. [846]*846Rundle, 428 Pa. 102, 105-106, 237 A.2d 196, 197 (1967) which reads as follows:

“A majority of criminal convictions are obtained after a plea of guilty. If these convictions are to be insulated from attack, the trial court is best advised to conduct an on the record examination of the defendant which should include, inter alia, an attempt to satisfy itself that the defendant understands the nature of the charges, his right to a jury trial, the acts sufficient to constitute the offenses for which he is charged and the permissible range of sentences.”

In the instant case it is manifest from the record that no examination of the defendant was conducted by the trial court to ascertain whether the relator understandingly and voluntarily entered his pleas of guilty. However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has recently held that West is not to be applied retroactively,2 Com. v. Cushnie, 433 Pa. 131, 249 A.2d 290 (Jan. 15, 1969) and that in all cases tried before West was decided the burden remained on the defendant to establish that he did not enter his guilty plea knowingly. “In fact, in Commonwealth v. Coleman, 430 Pa. 438, 243 A.2d 328 (1968), a case where the guilty plea was entered in 1965, after our decision in Barnosky,3 we indicated that the burden of proof remained on the defendant.”4 Moreover, that the matter is one of credibility and the hearing judge may refuse to believe the defendant’s version of what happened.

In Boykin, the United States Supreme Court referred to McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 89 S.Ct. 1166, 22 L.Ed.2d 418 (1969), which reversed a United States district judge, who accepted a guilty plea and failed to comply with Rule 11 of the Federal Criminal Rules. Subsequently, on May 5, 1969, in Halliday v. United States, 394 U.S. 831, 89 S.Ct. 1498, 23 L.Ed.2d 16, the United States Supreme Court declined to apply McCarthy, retroactively and stated:

“We hold that only those defendants whose guilty pleas were accepted after April 2, 1969, are entitled to plead anew if their pleas were accepted without full compliance with Rule 11.”

The rationale of Halliday was that the impact of retroactivity on the administration of justice outweighed the extent to which the condemned practice infected the integrity of the truth-determining process.

We fail to see any sound reason why the Halliday rationale should not be applied to Boykin, which unquestionably has a greater impact on the administration of state criminal justice than McCarthy would have on federal criminal procedure. Accordingly, we decline to apply Boykin retroactively.

As we have earlier indicated, the present relator’s guilty plea was accepted by the Court without an on-the-record inquiry to determine its voluntariness. Pennsylvania holds that there is a rebuttable presumption that a defendant, who enters a guilty plea, understands the consequences of his act. Com. ex rel. Washington v. Maroney, 427 Pa. 599, 235 A.2d 349 (1967). Where the record discloses no inquiry by the trial judge prior to acceptance of the guilty plea, [847]*847the presumption is of doubtful validity. United States ex rel. Crosby v. Rundle, supra 404 F.2d at p. 796 fn. 11.

We need not concern ourselves here about the obvious disagreement which exists as to whether the burden of proof shifts to the Commonwealth in due process attacks upon a guilty plea. This case differs materially from the usual assault upon the validity of a guilty plea, because this relator contends that he was rendered mentally incapable, by reason of an epileptic seizure, from comprehending the nature and effect of the very proceedings in which his guilty plea was entered. He specifically denies any knowledge of the proceedings and his willingness to plead guilty therein.

Relator’s counsel, Robert Williams, Esq., did not testify at the federal habeas corpus hearing, because he had no present recollection of the trial and his representation of the relator. The District Attorney, pursuant to a stipulation of counsel, offered Mr. Williams’ prior testimony at the state post-conviction hearing. (State n. t. pp. 5-26).

Mr. Williams recognized and recalled the relator, but had no recollection of specific conversations with him prior to the entry of a guilty plea. He testified that he could not recall anything unique or unusual about the relator’s appearance or demeanor on the day of the entry of the guilty plea. (State n. t. 8).

Mr. Williams was only able to state that, generally, he explained to his clients, the consequences of a guilty plea, the maximum sentences possible under the law, and the alternatives available, such as, a not guilty plea with a jury trial or a trial by a judge. (State n. t. 12-14).

The relator’s medical record reveals a history of epilepsy from the age of ten. While he was awaiting trial at the State Correctional Institution at Holmesburg, he was given anti-eonvulsant drugs for twenty-two days. On the day of his trial, however, he was not given the medication.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Layne v. Moore
90 F. App'x 418 (Third Circuit, 2004)
Lewis v. Commonwealth
472 S.W.2d 65 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1971)
Dominguez v. Henderson
316 F. Supp. 1134 (E.D. Louisiana, 1970)
Bracy v. State
456 S.W.2d 302 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1970)
Ryan v. Louisiana
314 F. Supp. 1047 (E.D. Louisiana, 1970)
People v. Wade
180 N.W.2d 349 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1970)
United States v. Deegan
310 F. Supp. 1076 (S.D. New York, 1970)
Miller v. Rhay
466 P.2d 179 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1970)
United States ex rel. Sadler v. Pennsylvania
306 F. Supp. 102 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
302 F. Supp. 845, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9895, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-wiggins-v-pennsylvania-paed-1969.