Williams v. Dunbar

Citation377 F.2d 505
Decision Date26 April 1967
Docket NumberNo. 21395.,21395.
PartiesSammy WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Walter H. DUNBAR et al., Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Sammy Williams, in pro. per.

Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen. of Calif., Robert R. Granucci, John T. Murphy, Deputy Attys. Gen., San Francisco, Cal., for appellees.

Before MADDEN, Judge of the United States Court of Claims, and BARNES and DUNIWAY, Circuit Judges.

MADDEN, Judge:

The appellant brought this suit in the United States District Court against the appellees, asserting against them claims for damages based on two sections of the Civil Rights Act, sections 1983 and 1985 of title 42, U.S.Code. The appellant asserted jurisdiction in the district court under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and (4) and invokes this court's jurisdiction in this appeal under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 1915.

The facts out of which this damage suit arises will be briefly stated. In 1959 the appellant pleaded guilty, in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, California, to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Judgment of guilt was entered against him on February 19, 1959, and he was sentenced to a California state prison. On September 5, 1959, he was paroled by the California authorities, but on August 29, 1961, his parole was revoked. He was again paroled on July 17, 1962, having signed a document reciting the conditions of his parole. A Mr. Harris, an officer of the California Adult Authority, was designated as the appellant's parole agent. Harris is one of the appellees in the appellant's instant suit.

On August 13, 1962, Officer Harris arrested the appellant. The applicable California statute is § 3056 of the Penal Code of California. It says:

Prisoners on parole shall remain in the legal custody of the department and shall be subject at any time to be taken back within the enclosure of the prison.

Harris reported to his superior, Nissen, who is also an appellee in the appellant's suit, and on October 2, 1962, the California Adult Authority cancelled the appellant's parole and he was returned to the state prison. In November, 1962, he was granted a hearing on the charge of violation of parole. The appellant denied the violation. The Adult Authority found that the violation had occurred, and confirmed the revocation.

The appellant, in this instant damage suit, alleges that his federal constitutional right to due process of law was violated by the state officers and agencies whom he made defendants in his suit, in the procedures which they followed in determining that he had violated his parole. His claim is that constitutional due process would have required that he be afforded a court hearing, with the rights to be represented by counsel, to confront and cross-examine witnesses and to have process to summon witnesses to support his denial of violation of parole.

If the appellant's contentions were valid, the use by the states and the federal government of the beneficent practice of releasing prisoners from the confines of the prison to the custody and supervision of parole officers would be impracticable and would have to be abandoned. The release from the confines of the prison would become substantially equivalent to the discharge of the prisoner from his sentence, and if, as in the instant case, the parolee denied either the fact of the violation or the legal sufficiency of the act alleged to be a violation of his parole, the prison authorities would be required, in a hearing before a judge, with all the concomitants of a non-jury criminal trial, to justify their...

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43 cases
  • Morrissey v. Brewer
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)
    • 21 april 1971
    ...supra; Eason v. Dickson, 390 F.2d 585 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 392 U.S. 914, 88 S.Ct. 2076, 20 L.Ed.2d 1373 (1968); Williams v. Dunbar, 377 F.2d 505 (9th Cir.); cert. denied, 389 U.S. 866, 88 S.Ct. 131, 19 L.Ed.2d 137 (1967); Hyser v. Reed, supra; Richardson v. Markley, supra; Johnson v. T......
  • Bearden v. State of South Carolina
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)
    • 10 juni 1971
    ...1962), and are in accord with the Third, Ninth and Tenth Circuits, Washington v. Hagen, 287 F.2d 332 (3rd Cir. 1960); Williams v. Dunbar, 377 F.2d 505 (9th Cir. 1967); Williams v. Patterson, 389 F.2d 374 (10th Cir. 1968), and Idaho, Heath v. State, 482 P. 2d 76 (Idaho 1971). Other circuits ......
  • Menechino v. Oswald
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)
    • 5 augustus 1970
    ...415 F.2d 767 (9th Cir. 1969). See also Dunn v. California Dep't of Corrections, 401 F.2d 340 (9th Cir. 1968) (dictum); Williams v. Dunbar, 377 F.2d 505 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 866, 88 S.Ct. 131, 19 L.Ed.2d 137 (1967); Earnest v. Willingham, 406 F.2d 681 (10th Cir. 1969); Cotner v......
  • Tucker, In re
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court (California)
    • 24 juni 1971
    ...prior to the' revocation of parole); see Sturm v. California Adult Authority (9th Cir. 1967) 395 F.2d 446, 448; Williams v. Dunbar (9th Cir. 1967) 377 F.2d 505, 506. Prior to 1941 a parolee charged with a violation of the terms of his parole possessed the statutory right to notice and to a ......
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