Welch v. Beto

234 F. Supp. 484, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7288
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedOctober 20, 1964
DocketCiv. A. No. 64-H-103
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 234 F. Supp. 484 (Welch v. Beto) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Welch v. Beto, 234 F. Supp. 484, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7288 (S.D. Tex. 1964).

Opinion

NOEL, District Judge.

Eugene Welch, petitioner herein, a prisoner in the custody of the Texas Department of Corrections in this District and Division, seeks a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2241.

Upon filing his application, petitioner, under sentence of death, prayed for a stay of execution pending the determination of the questions raised by his petition. Being of the opinion that a stay of execution should be granted in order that counsel might prepare and submit adequate briefs, and in order that the Court might give full and adequate consideration to the evidentiary and legal questions presented, the Court did order that the execution be stayed under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2251 until final disposition of these proceedings.

Petitioner complains that the judgment and sentence of the Fifteenth District Court of Grayson County, Texas, by virtue of which he is imprisoned and faced with execution, are in violation of the rights to due process and equal protection of the laws guaranteed him by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Petitioner’s trial on an indictment charging him with murder with malice was begun January 14, 1963. His sole defense was that he had been insane at the time he caused the death of the deceased. He also contended that he was insane at the time of trial. Both issues were hotly contested.

Dr. Wells, a psychiatrist, testified that he had examined petitioner and had conducted certain tests to aid in the determination of petitioner’s mental condition. Those tests were said by Dr. Wells to have shown petitioner to have the mental capacity of a twelve-year-old. Dr. Wells further testified that in his opinion petitioner had not known the nature of his acts or the difference between right and wrong either at the time he caused the death of the deceased or at the time of trial.

The prosecution countered Dr. Wells’ testimony with the testimony of a number of witnesses, among them a doctor who had had several periods of observation of petitioner and a farmer for whom petitioner had worked during the two months preceding the killing.

On January 24, 1963, petitioner was found guilty by the jury, which resolved the issues of insanity against him. The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, on the appeal, found that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the jury findings that petitioner was sane at the time the offense was alleged to have been committed and at the time of trial, and affirmed the conviction. Welch v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 373 S.W.2d 497 (1963).

Following denial by the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas of petitioner’s motion for rehearing of the appeal, his counsel filed with the trial judge, on January 21, 1964, a motion pursuant to art. 932b, § 3, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Code of Crim.Proced., requesting a presentence hearing thereunder to determine whether petitioner was then sane. Attached to the motion was an affidavit of Dr. Wells asserting that petitioner was insane.

After hearing the arguments of counsel, the trial judge denied the motion for a presentence sanity hearing. Upon the following day petitioner was sentenced to death by electrocution.

Counsel for petitioner attempted to appeal the denial of the motion for a presentence sanity hearing to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, but leave to file the appeal in that court was denied on February 4, 1964 “for want of jurisdiction of the attempted appeal.”

On February 28, 1964, counsel for petitioner filed with the trial judge a motion [487]*487requesting a post-sentence sanity hearing under art. 932b, § 4, Tex.Code of Crim. Proced., which referred to the affidavit of Dr. Wells which had been filed with the motion under § 3. This motion was also denied.

On February 29, 1964, an application for writ of habeas corpus was filed with the state trial court. That application set forth three contentions by which petitioner asserted he was denied his constitutional rights:

(1) The denial of his motion for a presentence sanity hearing under art. 932b, § 3, Tex.Code of Crim.Proced.;
(2) The denial of his motion for a post-sentence sanity hearing under art. 932b, § 4, Tex.Code of Crim. Proced.; and
(3) The entire trial was from its inception influenced by mob hysteria, preventing petitioner from receiving equal treatment and due proccess of law.

The application for a writ of habeas corpus was denied by the trial judge. Thereupon, an application for a writ of habeas corpus containing the same allegations was submitted to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas. It was denied March 4, 1964.

The same allegations of constitutional violations asserted by petitioner in his state court petition are now made in his application to this Court for federal habeas corpus relief. Petitioner appears properly to have exhausted his state remedies on the questions presented.

Upon the filing of petitioner’s application in this Court, an evidentiary hearing was ordered. It commenced on March 18,1964 and was reconvened and concluded on March 23, 1964. At the hearing, testimony was received from witnesses for both petitioner and respondent. A full record of the proceedings in the state courts, including a statement of facts from petitioner’s trial, was submitted to the Court. Following the hearing, counsel were instructed to submit briefs. The briefs have been received and the matter is now before the Court for decision.

For petitioner to prevail on either of his first two contentions, it must be a violation of constitutional rights to sentence or execute an insane man. Although the Supreme Court has not asserted in so many words, it has implied that executing an insane man would amount to a denial of due process.1 This is evident from Solesbee v. Balkcom, 339 U.S. 9, 70 S.Ct. 457, 94 L.Ed. 604 (1950), where the Court made a determination of “whether the method applied by Georgia here to determine the sanity of an already convicted defendant [sentenced to execution] offends due process.” This issue would never have been reached if it were not a denial of due process to execute an insane man, for then no inquiry into the existence of insanity, much less the adequacy of the proceeding to determine that existence, need ever have been made. See also, Caritativo v. Calif., 357 U.S. 549, 78 S.Ct. 1263, 2 L.Ed.2d 1531 (1958); Phyle v. Duffy, 334 U.S. 431, 68 S.Ct. 1131, 92 L.Ed. 1494 (1948); and Nobles v. Georgia, 168 U.S. 398 (1897).

I do not agree with the respondent’s apparent contention that because Mr. Justice Frankfurter in his dissent in Solesbee so eloquently stated the reasons why the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited the execution of an insane man, the majority in the case must have held that such an execution did not deny due process. Mr. Justice Frankfurter simply dissented from the majority’s holding that the there attacked procedure to determine insanity before execution was con[488]*488stitutionally proper.2 Furthermore, the Fourth Circuit in Snider v.

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Bluebook (online)
234 F. Supp. 484, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7288, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/welch-v-beto-txsd-1964.