Ratley v. Crouse, 8675.
| Decision Date | 07 June 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 8675.,8675. |
| Citation | 365 F.2d 320 |
| Parties | Roy RATLEY, Appellant, v. Sherman H. CROUSE, Warden, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Robert D. Benham Kansas City, Kansas, for appellant.
Richard H. Seaton, Asst. Atty. Gen., of Kansas (Robert C. Londerholm, Atty. Gen., of Kansas, on the brief), for appellee.
Before BREITENSTEIN and HILL, Circuit Judges, and LANGLEY, District Judge.
Appellant, a state prisoner, appeals from an order dismissing his petition for a writ of habeas corpus without a hearing.
Ratley pleaded guilty in the District Court of Stevens County, Kansas, to grand larceny of an automobile, in violation of K.S.A. 21-533, was sentenced to not less than five nor more than fifteen years and placed on probation. About four months later his parole was revoked and he commenced serving the sentence imposed. He has exhausted his state remedies.
In this appeal two sections of the Kansas Statutes Annotated, 21-533 and 534, are attacked as inconsistent, repugnant to each other and repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment.
The question presented does not raise a federal question, so as to give a federal court authority to entertain the state prisoner's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The question is simply one of interpretation of state statutes, and properly, for the determination by the state courts.1
The Supreme Court of Kansas in State v. Burney, 194 Kan. 292, 398 P.2d 335, decided this precise question and held that the two statutes in question are not inconsistent or repugnant, that section 534 was not repealed by implication upon enactment of section 533 and approved the increased penalty for the larceny of an automobile.
Appellant also complains here because the trial judge did not appoint an attorney to represent him before dismissing the petition. We have said many times that a habeas corpus petitioner is not entitled, as a matter of absolute right, to have counsel appointed for him.2 In addition, the fact that the petition did not raise a federal question certainly eliminated any necessity for the appointment of counsel.3
The trial court correctly refused to enter a show cause order and dismissed the petition.
Affirmed.
3 It should be noted that in the District of Kansas, it is the general practice to appoint counsel for indigent...
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Bethea v. Crouse, 2-68
...The federal courts in Kansas have, however, been prone to appoint counsel in civil actions where liberty is at stake. See Ratley v. Crouse, 365 F.2d 320, 321, ftnt. 3 (10th Cir. 1966). Consistent with this liberal policy, the trial judge in our case deferred action on the motion for appoint......
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Gallegos v. Turner
...Flowers v. State of Oklahoma, 356 F.2d 916 (10th Cir. 1966), and Rider v. Crouse, 357 F.2d 317 (10th Cir. 1966), supra; (see also Ratley v. Crouse, 365 F.2d 320 (10th Cir., May Term 1966)), do not establish that failure to appoint counsel or to grant hearings in habeas corpus or other colla......
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McInnes v. Anderson, Civ. No. 73-172.
...with the fundamental principles of liberty and justice. See Francia v. Rodriguez, 371 F.2d 827 (10th Cir. 1967); Ratley v. Crouse, 365 F.2d 320 (10th Cir. 1966); Mesmer v. Raines, 298 F.2d 718 (10th Cir. 1961). A similar situation was considered by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Allen, 344 U......
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United States ex rel. Worlow v. Pate, 16970
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