Wiglesworth v. Wyrick

531 S.W.2d 713, 1976 Mo. LEXIS 312
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 12, 1976
Docket59208
StatusPublished
Cited by53 cases

This text of 531 S.W.2d 713 (Wiglesworth v. Wyrick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wiglesworth v. Wyrick, 531 S.W.2d 713, 1976 Mo. LEXIS 312 (Mo. 1976).

Opinions

FINCH, Judge.

This is an original proceeding in habeas corpus. We quash the writ heretofore issued for the reason that the relief to which petitioner claims to be entitled is required by Rule 27.261 to be sought by a motion filed in accordance with the provisions of that rule in the circuit court wherein the judgment and sentence attacked by petitioner were entered.

Petitioner pleaded guilty on May 15,1975, in the Circuit Court of DeKalb County to a charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, third offense, a felony under § 564.440.2 The information to which petitioner pleaded guilty alleged two prior convictions of driving while intoxicated, viz., (a) on December 5,1968, on a plea of guilty in the magistrate court of DeKalb County on which he was fined $100 and (b) on September 17, 1973, on a plea of guilty in the Circuit Court of DeKalb County to a charge of driving while intoxicated, second offense, on which he was sentenced to 15 days in the county jail. On his plea of guilty on May 15, 1975, defendant was sentenced to a term of three years imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections. He asked that he be granted probation, which request was denied by the trial court on July 10, 1975. Shortly thereafter, defendant was delivered to the Department of Corrections and incarcerated in the penitentiary at Jefferson City.

On July 28, 1975 petitioner filed in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Kansas City District, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging his imprisonment to be illegal on the grounds that (a) there was only one valid conviction against him under § 564.-[715]*715440, the earlier convictions alleged in the information being invalid because he was not represented by counsel therein and there was no knowing and intelligent waiver of his right to counsel in said cases, and (b) the Circuit Court of DeKalb County had no jurisdiction to try or hear the case against petitioner on May 15,1975, because defendant previously had filed a motion for change of judge which was never acted upon and was still pending.

The Court of Appeals, on July 30, 1975, issued its writ of habeas corpus and, pending resolution of the issues raised, admitted petitioner to bail. Respondent then filed his return to the writ which asserted reasons why the May 15, 1975, judgment and sentence and the incarceration thereunder are valid. In addition to his return, respondent filed a motion to quash the writ of habeas corpus as improvidently granted on the basis that issues raised therein must be asserted in the sentencing court by a motion to vacate under Rule 27.26. That motion to quash was ordered taken with the case by the Court of Appeals.

Thereafter, while briefs were in process of preparation and before the date on which the case had been set for argument, respondent, pursuant to Rule 83.06, filed an application in this court requesting that we transfer the case here before opinion and then proceed to decide it as authorized by Art. V, § 10, Mo.Const. We sustained that application and set the case for argument on the same date it had been scheduled for argument in the Court of Appeals. We now decide the case as though the writ of habeas corpus had been issued by this court.

Does Rule 27.26 mandate that petitioner seek the relief requested herein by a motion to vacate in the Circuit Court of DeKalb County?

Necessarily, we consider at the outset the threshold issue, raised by the motion to quash, of whether petitioner was entitled to attack the validity of the judgment and sentence under which he was incarcerated by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Kansas City District, or whether, as contended by respondent, petitioner was required by Rule 27.26 to raise the issue by filing a motion to vacate in the Circuit Court of DeKalb County, the sentencing court.

Rule 27.26, insofar as pertinent to this issue, provides as follows:

“A prisoner in custody under sentence and claiming a right to be released on the ground that such sentence was imposed in violation of the Constitution and laws of this State or the United States, or that the court imposing such sentence was without jurisdiction to do so, or that such sentence was in excess of the maximum sentence authorized by law or is otherwise subject to collateral attack, may file a motion at any time in the court which imposed such sentence to vacate, set aside or correct the same. The following procedure shall be applicable to motions filed pursuant to this Rule:
“(a) Nature of Remedy. This Rule is intended to provide the exclusive procedure which shall be followed when a prisoner in custody seeks relief on the basis of any of the attacks on a sentence enumerated above. The motion seeking such relief shall be filed in the court where the sentence was imposed. This Rule does not suspend the rights available by habe-as corpus but rather prescribes the procedure to be followed in seeking the enforcement of those rights. It includes all relief heretofore available in any court by habeas corpus when used for the purpose of seeking to vacate, set aside or correct a sentence, plus relief not available by ha-beas corpus. * * * ” •

Does the relief sought herein by the writ of habeas corpus fall within the foregoing provisions of Rule 27.26? It is clear that it does. In the first place, petitioner asserts that the two earlier convictions relied on by the State are constitutionally deficient for lack of counsel or waiver thereof. For that reason, he says that he [716]*716was sentenced contrary to the provisions of § 564.440 and received a sentence not permissible in the absence of two prior valid convictions of driving while intoxicated. This collateral attack on his conviction and sentence and his incarceration thereunder falls squarely within the scope of Rule 27.26 as expressed in the portion quoted above. Likewise, lack of jurisdiction, the second ground for relief asserted in the habeas corpus proceeding, is one of the grounds for collateral attack specifically listed in Rule 27.26.

Furthermore, the intention that relief to be provided by Rule 27.26 encompasses that sought by petitioner in his habeas corpus petition is disclosed by the recital in the rule that it is to provide all relief heretofore available in any court by habeas corpus, when used for the purpose of vacating, setting aside or correcting a sentence, and that the rule simply prescribes the procedure to be followed in seeking enforcement of those rights.

We conclude that Rule 27.26 does mandate that the relief requested by petitioner herein be sought in a motion to vacate filed in DeKalb County. Hence, unless for some reason the requirement in the rule that such procedure be utilized is impermissible, it would appear that the motion to quash is well taken and should be sustained.

Is Rule 27.26 unconstitutional as a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in violation of Art. I, § 12, Mo.Const.?

In response to the asserted exclusiveness of the procedure specified in Rule 27.26, petitioner insists that the remedy provided therein is supplementary to and provides an alternate remedy for habeas corpus. He argues that it does not and cannot provide an exclusive remedy because that would violate Art. I, § 12, Mo.Const. which states “that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall never be suspended”.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
531 S.W.2d 713, 1976 Mo. LEXIS 312, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wiglesworth-v-wyrick-mo-1976.