Yarnal v. Brierley

324 F. Supp. 311, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14240
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 12, 1971
DocketCiv. A. No. 71-72
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 324 F. Supp. 311 (Yarnal v. Brierley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yarnal v. Brierley, 324 F. Supp. 311, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14240 (W.D. Pa. 1971).

Opinion

[312]*312OPINION

ROSENBERG, District Judge.

Robert Virgil Yarnal has presented a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in forma pauperis. The petitioner is presently confined in the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, serving a life sentence imposed by the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Indiana County, Pennsylvania at No. 1 December Term, 1964. The sentence was imposed on April 2, 1965, after the petitioner entered a plea of guilty to the charge of murder, generally, and a two-judge court heard the evidence and fixed the offense at murder in the first degree.

A direct appeal from the conviction and sentence was not perfected. Subsequently thereto, the petitioner filed a post conviction hearing petition which was ordered filed on May 23, 1967 and refused on the merits without a hearing. On June 5, 1967 the Court reversed itself and entered an order granting petitioner the right to take an appeal nunc pro tunc. The principal question raised before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and which petitioner raises here is whether it was error to admit testimony regarding statements made and acts performed by the petitioner at a reenactment of the crime when during that period petitioner indicated that he did not have counsel available to him, but that he was going to secure representation. On March 15, 1968, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the judgment of the trial court. Commonwealth v. Yarnal, 429 Pa. 6, 239 A.2d 318 (1968). Certiorari was denied November 10, 1969. Yarnal v. Pennsylvania, 396 U.S. 911, 90 S.Ct. 224, 24 L.Ed.2d 186 (1969). Therefore, the petitioner has fully exhausted the remedies available to him in the state courts. United States ex rel. Howard v. Russell, 415 F.2d 169, C.A. 3, 1969; United States ex rel. Fletcher v. Maroney, 413 F.2d 16, C.A. 3, 1969; United States ex rel. Smith v. Brierley, 295 F.Supp. 1195 (M.D.Pa.1969).

Because of the issues raised by the petitioner, I caused the complete records of the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Indiana County to be produced for my inspection. United States ex rel. Montgomery v. Brierley, 414 F.2d 552, C.A. 3, 1969, cert. den. 399 U.S. 912, 90 S.Ct. 2206, 26 L.Ed.2d 566 (1970). The completeness of these records obviates the necessity for additional evidentiary hearings. United States ex rel. Rowles v. Myers, 407 F.2d 1332, C.A. 3, 1969, cert. den. 396 U.S. 856, 90 S.Ct. 120, 24 L.Ed. 2d 106 (1969), rehearing denied 396 U.S. 938, 90 S.Ct. 268, 24 L.Ed.2d 239 (1969); United States ex rel. Thomas v. Maroney, 406 F.2d 992, C.A. 3, 1969.

The record discloses that on August 20, 1964, the petitioner and his co-defendant Elmer Wilson Clark, and the latter’s sister, Jane Clark, were arrested as a result of a “suspicious-person” complaint; that at the time of the arrest, the petitioner and Jane Clark were occupants of an automobile which was parked on the berm of U. S. Route 30 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania; that as a result of a telephone call received from Jane Clark on September 26, 1964, the police located the body of Walter Blair on September 28, 1964; that the petitioner was present at the place where the body was discovered, at which time he related the [313]*313events which culminated in Blair’s death, to the Sheriff of Indiana County; that the cause of death was a gunshot wound of the head; that on September 30, 1964, both the petitioner and his co-defendant were interrogated by the Sheriff of Indiana County and re-enacted the events leading up to the death of Walter Blair; that on October 7, 1964 counsel was appointed to represent the petitioner; that on March 22, 1965, the petitioner entered a plea of guilty to the charge of murder, generally; that a hearing was held for the purpose of determining the degree of guilt on April 2, 1965, at which time the degree was set at murder in the first degree, and that a sentence of life imprisonment was then imposed. In his appeal to the State Supreme Court, and in the present petition, it is contended that it was erroneous to admit the testimony of statements made to the Indiana County Sheriff for the purpose of determining the degree of the crime.

The denial of certiorari by the Supreme Court is without substantive significance. United States ex rel. O’Connor v. State of New Jersey, 405 F.2d 632, C.A. 3, 1969, cert. den. Yeager v. United States, 395 U.S. 923, 89 S.Ct. 1770, 23 L.Ed.2d 240 (1969). While the findings of the state courts are presumed to be correct, United States ex rel. Dickerson v. Rundle, 430 F.2d 462, C.A. 3, 1970, an examination of the transcript and a review of the applicable Pennsylvania law is also necessary.

It is provided that “AH'murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison, or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of deliberate and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration of, or attempting to perpetrate any arson, rape, robbery, burglary, or kidnapping, shall be murder in the first degree.” Act of June 24, 1939, P. L. 872, § 701, as amended 18 P.S. § 4701.

Following the conclusion of the testimony, the Court rendered its opinion, in which it stated that “After a careful consideration of all of the evidence in the case, we are of the opinion that Robert Virgil Yarnal willfully and deliberately and premeditatedly, shot and killed Walter Blair * * * ” (Tr. pg. 166). Additionally, the Court concluded that “We are further of the opinion that the evidence is sufficient to conclude that the defendant, Yarnal, intended to rob the deceased, in that he previously stated that he intended to steal a car, even if it was necessary to kill; and the taking of the automobile, which is personal property, constituted the crime of robbery ; that this robbery was accomplished by the killing.” (Tr. pg. 167). On either ground, the Court concluded a conviction of first degree murder was warranted. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania did not examine the felony-murder issue, since it concluded that the evidence was sufficient to sustain a first degree conviction for a “willful, deliberate and premeditated killing.”

The petitioner contends that the trial court improperly admitted the testimony of Paul W. Jeffries, Sheriff of Indiana County, concerning statements made by the petitioner at the time of his arrest and at the re-enactment of the crime, at which time he was not represented by counsel. In Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 492, 84 S.Ct.

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Related

United States Ex Rel. Jacoby v. Arnold
442 F. Supp. 144 (M.D. Pennsylvania, 1977)
Paulus v. Fenton
443 F. Supp. 473 (M.D. Pennsylvania, 1977)
Robert Virgil Yarnal, C-7764 v. Joseph R. Brierley
468 F.2d 816 (Third Circuit, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
324 F. Supp. 311, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yarnal-v-brierley-pawd-1971.