Wallace Leroy Schiers v. The People of the State of California

333 F.2d 173, 1964 U.S. App. LEXIS 5185
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 4, 1964
Docket18643
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 333 F.2d 173 (Wallace Leroy Schiers v. The People of the State of California) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wallace Leroy Schiers v. The People of the State of California, 333 F.2d 173, 1964 U.S. App. LEXIS 5185 (9th Cir. 1964).

Opinion

MERRILL, Circuit Judge:

Appellant, convicted of second-degree murder in the courts of the State of California, seeks release on habeas corpus and has appealed from judgment of the district court denying his petition for the writ.

He unsuccessfully appealed a judgment of conviction. People v. Schiers (1958) 160 Cal.App.2d 364, 324 P.2d 981, hearing denied 160 Cal.App.2d 378, 329 P.2d 1. It does not appear-, however, that he has sought habeas corpus in the state courts, a remedy available to him under California Penal Code, § 1473 et seq.

Title 28 TJ.S.C. § 2254, provides that a state prisoner’s application for habeas corpus “shall not be granted unless it appears that the applicant has exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State * * This requires that “constitutional issues arising out of state ex-iminal prosecutions should be presented first to state courts.” Macomber v. Gladden (9 Cir. 1962) 304 F.2d 487, 490. These issues, however, need only be presented once. Brown v. Allen (1953) 344 U.S. 443, 73 S.Ct. 397, 97 L.Ed. 469.

The question before us is whether any of the contentions made in the present petition are the substantial equivalent of contentions presented by petitioner to the state courts upon his appeal from conviction. 1 If so, they should here be considered on the merits. Daugharty v. Gladden (9 Cir. 1958) 257 F.2d 750. If not, petitioner’s state remedies have not been exhausted. Rose v. Dickson (9 Cir. 1964) 327 F.2d 27.

We proceed to consider the contentions presented by petitioner in his petition to the district court.

*175 L AUeged detention.

Petitioner alleges that following his arrest, and for seven days before his arraignment, he was subjected to a detention which not only violated state law, but which, at least considered in connection with its consequences, was a deprivation of liberty without due process. He alleges that during this period he was subjected to many accusatory interrogation sessions, during which officers showed him gruesome photos of his wife’s nude dead body, and suggested that he had raped her after he killed her. He also alleges that as a result of these sessions and of the officers’ accusations he was coerced into taking a lie-detector test, evidence of which was injected into the trial by the testimony of a police officer. He alleges that the detention denied to him freedom of movement to prepare his defense.

Petitioner has never urged these facts or contentions arising from them in any state proceeding. Clearly, then, the issue of this detention and whatever significance it may have has not been exhausted in the state courts.

2. Introduction of testimony with reference to lie-detector test.

Petitioner alleges that he was denied a fair trial and thus deprived of liberty without due process, by virtue of the fact that on trial one prosecution witness, in a somewhat unresponsive answer on direct examination, had volunteered the information that petitioner had submitted tc a lie-detector test which had disclosed that he was lying. Following a conference with counsel in chambers, the judge had instructed the jury that this testimony was stricken and that they were to “pass it all out of your mind.”

Petitioner contends that the effect of this testimony was so prejudical that the court’s later admonitory instruction could not vitiate the unfairness which it had injected into the trial.

This contention was presented to the state courts. The district court of appeal remarked that the testimony was clearly inadmissible and that even in the absence of objection the trial court should have halted the witness at his first mention of a lie detector. It held, however, that the error was not prejudicial since “the instruction was sufficient to dissipate the harm that had been done.” 160 Cal.App. 2d at 373, 324 P.2d at 986. On petition to the state supreme court for hearing, Justice Carter vigorously dissented from the court’s denial of hearing on the ground that the instruction was insufficient to block out the error, and that the incident amounted to a denial of due process. 160 Cal.App.2d at 379.

Notwithstanding this presentation to the state courts, we are of the view that we should not review the issue so presented. It is now wholly transformed by other factual assertions of the petitioner into quite a different problem.

Before the state courts it was assumed that petitioner had voluntarily submitted to the lie-detector test and that the volunteered testimony with reference to it was not such as should have been anticipated by the prosecutor.

Petitioner now asserts that his submission to the test was due to psychological coercion; that his reluctance to submit was overridden by police officers by “vile” “ugly” “threatening” and “brutal” accusations. Petitioner also asserts that the testimony respecting the test was wilfully introduced into the trial by both prosecutor and witness, with knowledge of its inadmissibility; that the prosecutor had knowledge that the testimony would be forthcoming since it had been given at a preliminary hearing; that its injection into the trial had been by prearrangement between counsel and witness.

These facts, if proved, present the constitutional issues of fair trial and due process in a wholly different light from that in which they were presented to the state courts.

In our judgment the state courts should first be given the opportunity to pass upon these issues in their present form. Accordingly we hold, as to this conten *176 tion, that state remedies have not been exhausted.

3. Ineffective assistance of counsel.

On appeal, petitioner contended that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel. This contention, however, had been based solely on the facts appearing in the record. These show that his counsel was suffering during trial from some ill effects from an accident occurring a few days prior to trial. Chief emphasis had been placed on counsel’s conceded “blackout” at the crucial moment when lie-detector evidence was introduced. The district court of appeal ruled that no sufficient showing had been made in view of counsel’s able and vigorous defense on the whole, including extensive and searching cross-examination of prosecution witnesses.

Petitioner now asserts, as support for his contention, facts outside the record and never urged to the state courts.

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Bluebook (online)
333 F.2d 173, 1964 U.S. App. LEXIS 5185, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wallace-leroy-schiers-v-the-people-of-the-state-of-california-ca9-1964.