Yates v. Breazeale

266 F. Supp. 360, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8392
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Mississippi
DecidedMarch 24, 1967
DocketCiv. A. No. GC662
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 266 F. Supp. 360 (Yates v. Breazeale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yates v. Breazeale, 266 F. Supp. 360, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8392 (N.D. Miss. 1967).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

CLAYTON, Chief Judge.

The petition for habeas corpus of Philip G. Yates, who is a prisoner in the penitentiary under a death sentence imposed by a Mississippi court, is now before this court for the second time. Upon its first consideration here, this court abstained for a period of four months to permit exhaustion of state remedies by petitioner as is required by the habeas statute.1 Yates v. Breazeale, 255 F.Supp. 820 (D.C.1966).

Petitioner has now made a proper showing in this court, as was permitted under the former disposition here, that he has now exhausted his state post conviction procedures without success. His application for leave to file a petition for writ of error coram nobis in the trial court was denied by the Supreme Court of Mississippi. Yates v. State, Miss., 189 So.2d 917. His Suggestion of Error was afterward denied by that court without opinion.

Petitioner entered a plea of guilty to a murder indictment, and the question of what punishment would be imposed was tried to a jury as is required by state law.2 The verdict and the sentence imposed thereon were for infliction of the death penalty. That case was reversed by the Supreme Court of Mississippi on the single ground that the trial court should have sustained defendant’s motion for a continuance which would have permitted counsel to properly prepare petitioner’s case, especially with respect to medical records bearing on his mental condition which were made during his brief service in the Air Force. Yates v. State, 251 Miss. 376, 169 So.2d 792 (1964).

Again the question of what punishment would be imposed was tried to a jury on [362]*362petitioner’s then newly reaffirmed plea of guilty. The verdict was for the death penalty. On appeal the Supreme Court of Mississippi affirmed. Yates v. State, 253 Miss. 424, 175 So.2d 617 (1965). Petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States was denied. Yates v. Mississippi, 382 U.S. 931, 86 S.Ct. 321, 15 L.Ed.2d 342 (1965).

The first jury verdict was returned on February 28, 1964. The second death penalty jury verdict was on March 1, 1965. In between those dates the Supreme Court of the United States decided Escobedo v. State of Illinois3 on June 22, 1964. That court since has also decided Miranda v. State of Arizona4 (June 13, 1966) and Johnson v. State of New Jersey5 (June 20, 1966). Petitioner relies heavily on Escobedo to present his claims here, which are in essence:

First: The state had no case absent confessions by Yates and the fruits thereof which included directions by Yates to the body of the murdered man, and such confessions were not admissible under Escobedo because they came from interrogation when Yates was in custody without counsel and without any prior advice to him as to his right to counsel or his right to remain silent.
Second: That both pleas of guilty were prompted by a belief on the part of Yates and his appointed counsel that the confession and its fruits were admissible (when, as he now claims, they were not) and that thus such pleas are insufficient to sustain a conviction.
Third: That at the time when said pleas of guilty were entered, Yates had the mistaken belief that the death penalty could not be imposed on such a plea.
Fourth: That it was constitutionally impermissible for the trial court to accept Yates’ second or reaffirmed plea of guilty and his waiver of the defense of insanity, since, as Yates claims, these actions were based upon a psychiatric finding that petitioner was “without psychosis” and were without a determination that Yates was competent to stand trial, to enter the plea of guilty, and to waive the issue of insanity.

I.

Escobedo was decided after petitioner’s first jury trial, but before the second. Miranda v. State of Arizona was decided after the second trial. In Johnson v. State of New Jersey it was held that these rulings were not to have retroactive effect. Thus, if any of them have any application here, it would be to the second trial. Having no retroactive effect, they could not in any way affect the proceedings incident to the jury trial which ended on February 28, 1964.

The transcripts of Yates’ two trials are before this court.6 The Supreme Court of Mississippi stated the facts at length on the first appeal. However, the following outline may prove helpful.

On January 27, 1964, the night operator of a service station in Lucedale, Mississippi, Jerry Gordon, was missing. On February 11, 1964, Yates was arrested in Michigan on an Alabama charge. He waived extradition and was transported to Mobile by air on February 14. En route from the airport to jail he escaped, but was recaptured in a bam on his father’s property on February 15 by officers of Jackson County, Mississippi.7 He was transported to jail in Jackson County to facilitate his return to Alabama at Mobile.

[363]*363That afternoon he was questioned briefly by the County Prosecuting Attorney of George County and the Chief of Police of Lucedale about the disappearance of Jerry Gordon. The George County Sheriff was also present.8 Yates at least intimated to them that he would tell them all about Jerry Gordon, but wanted to see Reverend Buckly, his preacher, first. He also asked that he be permitted to talk to J. B. Gibson, Chief of Police of Pascagoula.

Later, when Gibson arrived, Yates asked whether Reverend Buckly had been called and was told that he had been. Gibson questioned Yates briefly (about extradition to Alabama) and then asked about Gordon. Yates, without admitting his guilt, asked what the penalty would be if he was guilty. He was told that he could get death or life imprisonment. After further conversation, Gibson testified that Yates said, “Well, I will tell you this. I killed the boy. He’s in the Kirkland Pasture.” And, “I will go show you where the body is at after I talk to Reverend Buckly. I want to talk to him. Will you go get him?” Gibson said that he would, and did.

Reverend George C. Buckly testified that Sheriff Howell, of George County, came to the Buckly house and said that Yates wanted to see him and that he went with the Sheriff to the jail to see him. He believed that Yates wanted to confess. At the jail he talked privately to him and Yates told him that he had killed Gordon and would go with the officers to show them where the body was hidden if he, Buckly, would go with him. He also told Yates that he wanted him to tell the officers the truth and “pay the price” and that he, Buckly, did not believe that Yates would get “anything but life by your confession, but if it means death, pay the price.”

Yates went with the officers and Reverend Buckly, directing them to where Gordon’s body was hidden in a lonely woods under a pile of brush and undergrowth. He also explained in detail how he had killed Gordon.

The following day he personally wrote out a complete confession which showed that he was guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping, as well as murder. This confession was typed substantially as he had written it, presented to him, and signed by him in the presence of officers.

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Related

King v. Cook
211 So. 2d 517 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
266 F. Supp. 360, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yates-v-breazeale-msnd-1967.