Williams v. Meachum

592 F. Supp. 281, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15595
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Oklahoma
DecidedJune 25, 1984
DocketNo. 83-C-715-BT
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 592 F. Supp. 281 (Williams v. Meachum) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Meachum, 592 F. Supp. 281, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15595 (N.D. Okla. 1984).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

BRETT, District Judge.

Before the Court for consideration is the petition for writ of habeas corpus of Gregory D. Williams. Respondents filed their initial response and petitioner replied to it. Respondents filed a supplemental response to which petitioner has also replied. For the reasons set forth below, the Court concludes the petition should be granted.

Petitioner was convicted in Tulsa County District Court on June 8, 1981, in Case No. CFR-80-1086, of Escape from a Penal Institution. Petitioner was sentenced to two years imprisonment to run consecutively with another sentence received in Payne County, Oklahoma.

Petitioner did not perfect a direct appeal to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

[283]*283Petitioner filed his application for post-conviction relief in the District Court of Tulsa County on September 29, 1982. His application was denied on October 15, 1982.

Petitioner appealed the denial of post-conviction relief to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. The denial of post-conviction relief was affirmed on November 17, 1982, Case No. PC-82-654.

Petitioner has exhausted his state court remedies and may properly proceed herein. Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982).

In his petition for writ of habeas corpus, petitioner raises four grounds of error:

1. Petitioner’s guilty plea to the charge of Escape from a Penal Institution was involuntary because it was induced by the unconstitutional conditions existing at the Tulsa County Jail.

2. Petitioner’s sentencing was unconstitutional because the judge knew of the unconstitutional conditions of the Oklahoma prison system yet sentenced petitioner to two years incarceration.

3. Petitioner’s sentence is illegal because the Oklahoma Department of Corrections is not operated according to federal, constitutional and state standards.

4. Petitioner’s incarceration is illegal because he made no knowing and intelligent waiver of his right to jury trial, right against self-incrimination and right to confront his accusers. Petitioner claims the trial court gave him no explanation of the dangers of waiving these rights, nor of the maximum/minimum possible punishment for the crime charged.

In habeas corpus actions, a federal court must give the findings made by the state court judge a presumption of correctness. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). The burden rests upon the habeas applicant to establish “by convincing evidence” that the factual determination by the state court was erroneous. Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 550, 101 S.Ct. 764, 770, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981). In Sumner v. Mata, 455 U.S. 591, 591-92, 102 S.Ct. 1303, 1304, 71 L.Ed.2d 480 (1982), the United States Supreme Court said:

“This is the second time that this matter has come before us. In Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 101 S.Ct. 764, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981), decided last Term, we held that 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) ... requires federal courts in habeas proceedings to accord a presumption of correctness to state-court findings of fact. This requirement could not be plainer. The statute explicitly provides that ‘a determination after a hearing on the merits of a factual issue, made by a State court of competent jurisdiction ... shall be presumed to be correct.’ Only when one of seven specified factors is present or the federal court determines that the. state-court finding of fact ‘is not fairly supported by the record’ may the presumption properly be viewed as inapplicable or rebutted.”

The “seven specified factors” to which the Court refers are as follows:

(1) that the merits of the factual dispute were not resolved in the State court hearing;
(2) that the factfinding procedure employed by the State court was not adequate to afford a full and fair hearing;
(3) that the material facts were not adequately developed at the State court hearing;
(4) that the State court lacked jurisdiction of the subject matter or over the person of the applicant in the State court proceeding;
(5) that the applicant was an indigent and the State court, in deprivation of his constitutional right, failed to appoint counsel to represent him in the State court proceeding;
(6) that the applicant did not receive a full, fair, and adequate hearing in the State court proceeding;
(7) that the applicant was otherwise denied due process of law in the State court proceeding.

With Sumner in mind, the Court first addresses petitioner’s fourth ground of error, the basis for granting the writ of habe[284]*284as corpus. Grounds one, two and three addressed thereafter are without merit.

GROUND FOUR: KNOWING AND INTELLIGENT WAIVER OF PETITIONER’S RIGHTS

Petitioner claims his incarceration is illegal and in “violation of the 5th, 6th, 9th, and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution in that the petitioner did not knowingly, willingly, and intelligently waive his constitutional rights to, (1) A JURY TRIAL, (2) RIGHT AGAINST SELF INCRIMINATION, (3) RIGHT TO CONFRONT HIS ACCUSSERS (sic).” Moreover, petitioner claims the district court did not fully explain to petitioner the dangers of waiving the above rights or “advise or inform the petitioner of the minimum or maximum punishment provided by law for the crime of which he stood accussed (sic).” 1

In North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 31, 91 S.Ct. 160, 164, 27 L.Ed.2d 162 (1970), the United States Supreme Court held that the standard for determining the validity of a guilty plea “was and remains whether the plea represents a voluntary and intelligent choice among the alternative courses of action open to the defendant.” A plea of guilty is a solemn act on the part of a defendant charged with a crime and is not to be disregarded because of belated misgivings about the wisdom of such plea. United States v. Woosley, 440 F.2d 1280 (8th Cir.1971).

The following is the transcript of petitioner’s plea and sentencing hearing before the state trial judge on June 8, 1981:

THE COURT: CRF 80-1086, the State of Oklahoma versus Gregory D. Williams. This matter comes on for arraignment today. The Defendant appears in person represented by Mr. Laphen, the State by Mr. Morgan. The Defendant waived a preliminary hearing on June 2, and was bound over to this Court for trial on a felony offense of escape from a penal institution, although the minute reflects robbery with firearm from the preliminary.

MR.

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Bluebook (online)
592 F. Supp. 281, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15595, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-meachum-oknd-1984.