Maes v. Patterson, 9995.
| Decision Date | 12 December 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 9995.,9995. |
| Citation | 401 F.2d 200 |
| Parties | Eddie S. MAES, Appellant, v. Wayne K. PATTERSON, Warden, Colorado State Penitentiary, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Robert G. Hanson, Colorado Springs, Colo., for appellant.
George E. DeRoos, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Duke W. Dunbar, Atty. Gen., and Frank E. Hickey, Deputy Atty. Gen., were with him on the brief) for appellee.
Before LEWIS, BREITENSTEIN and HICKEY, Circuit Judges.
This appeal is taken from an order of the District Court for the District of Colorado summarily dismissing appellant's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Petitioner, a state prisoner, is presently serving a sentence of not less than ten years imposed after entry of plea of guilty to the offense of unlawful possession of narcotics. He alleges that his plea of guilty was an involuntary and coerced act,1 which allegation if substantiated would, of course, be a proper basis for federal relief. Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908.
Petitioner has exhausted his state remedy. By motion filed under Rule 35(b) of the Colorado Rules of Criminal Procedure petitioner presented his contention to the state trial court, was granted a full evidentiary hearing, and was denied relief. On appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, the judgment of the trial court was affirmed. Maes v. People, 435 P.2d 893.
At the time appellant's present action was dismissed the federal district court had before it only the petition for a writ. Noting that the petition presented no issue not fully considered under adequate state procedures and that the result reached in state court was presumptively correct under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d),2 the action was dismissed without further federal consideration. We have held that a federal court cannot accept as conclusive a prior state adjudication of a federal question simply from the fact of identity of issue. In Dentis v. State of Oklahoma, 10 Cir., 376 F.2d 590, at 591, we stated the limitation thus:
"In a habeas corpus case brought by a state prisoner in which a federal Constitutional question is raised, a prior adjudication of the law or facts by a state court is not to be accepted by the federal judge without first determining that there is factual and legal support for such adjudication."
The cited language was again approved by this court in Brown v. Crouse, 399 F.2d 311, decided July 26, 1968, where consideration was given to specific provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 2254, as amended in 1966. Practical impacts of the 1966 amendment were to relieve federal courts of the necessity of relitigating factual issues determinative of federal rights claimed by state prisoners, of trying such an issue de novo, and of further relieving the federal courts from merely reiterating the proper application of federal legal right when the state court has correctly applied the federal law.3 In many, perhaps in most, of the applications for federal habeas corpus disposition can now be made without an evidentiary hearing.4 But the duty of the federal court remains to make an independent determination that due process has been observed in the factual and legal support for state adjudications. Section 2254 does not purport to apply the finality of res judicata to any state determination of a federal right. The federal court may indulge in the presumption that the state court's determination of facts is correct, and...
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