Beckett v. Boles, Civ. A. No. 1213-W.

• Citation: 218 F. Supp. 692
• Decision Date: 25 June 1963
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 1213-W.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of West Virginia
• Parties: Franklin BECKETT, Petitioner, v. Otto C. BOLES, Warden of the West Virginia State Penitentiary, Respondent.

218 F. Supp. 692

Franklin BECKETT, Petitioner, v. Otto C. BOLES, Warden of the West Virginia State Penitentiary, Respondent.

Civ. A. No. 1213-W.

United States District Court N. D. West Virginia, at Wheeling.

June 25, 1963.

Wright Hugus, Jr., John D. Phillips, Jr., Wheeling, W. Va., for petitioner.

Thomas B. Yost, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

CHARLES F. PAUL, District Judge.

A writ of habeas corpus was issued, competent counsel were appointed for the petitioner, and a plenary hearing was scheduled and held June 3, 1963, because of the allegations of the petition, which may be summarized as follows:

On a breaking and entering indictment returned by the Wayne County Grand Jury November 21, 1960, the petitioner was removed from the Cabell County Jail to the Wayne County Jail on December 5, 1960. One, James E. Chambers, was appointed counsel for him on that day. Chambers talked with the petitioner in the jail for about ten minutes, and went with him to the courtroom, where he was arraigned before the Judge of the Circuit Court and entered a plea of not guilty. Immediately thereafter, the jury was empaneled and a witness called to testify. After a few questions and answers, the petitioner's court-appointed counsel announced to the court that the petitioner desired to withdraw his plea of not guilty and enter a plea of guilty. Petitioner was immediately asked to replead, and because neither he nor his counsel was prepared to proceed with trial, petitioner acquiesced and entered a plea of guilty. Thereupon, the Prosecuting Attorney filed an information charging the petitioner with three prior felony convictions, and invoked the West Virginia recidivist statute (Michie's Code, § 6130 and § 6131). The portions of the information reciting the previous convictions were read to the petitioner and, without explaining the purposes of the inquiries, the petitioner was asked whether he was the same person who had sustained the convictions. On the petitioner's affirmative answers, without objection by his counsel or consultation between counsel and petitioner, the petitioner was immediately sentenced to life imprisonment.

The allegations of the petition seemed to make pertinent inquiry into whether the petitioner had received effective representation by counsel under the rules expressed in Jones v. Cunningham, 313 F.2d 347 (4 Cir. 1963) and Turner v. Maryland, 303 F.2d 507 (4 Cir. 1962), and also whether the procedure under the recidivist proceedings met the constitutional requirements spelled out in Spry v. Boles, 299 F.2d 332 (4 Cir. 1962).

The conflicting testimony at the hearing, tested by the rules governing witnesses' credibility, leads this court to the following findings of fact and conclusions:

In the early hours of the morning of October 24, 1960, a restaurant and storeroom on the outskirts of the city of Huntington, in that portion of the city which lies in Wayne County, West Virginia, was broken into. Two police detectives and a policeman of the city of Huntington surprised the petitioner and an accomplice in the premises, attempting to hide. They were in possession of burglary tools and money taken from a juke box which had been broken open. The petitioner, who was on parole from the West Virginia Penitentiary on a former conviction of a felony, was arrested and taken to the Cabell County Jail, where he was held as a parole violator. Upon questioning, the petitioner frankly admitted not only his complicity in the breaking and entering of the store in which he was found, but also other breakings and enterings in the city of Huntington, in Cabell County. The petitioner signed a statement involving a confession to the Wayne County depredation. That the confessions were voluntarily and understandingly made, without coercion or improper inducement, is not brought into question. Later in the morning, during business hours, petitioner was granted a preliminary hearing before a Justice of the Peace and bound over to the Cabell County Grand Jury, and then taken before a Justice of Wayne County, and, after hearing, bound over to the Wayne County Grand Jury. He was returned to the Cabell County Jail, where he was held until the morning of December 5, 1960.

On November 21, 1960, the Wayne County Grand Jury returned an indictment. Upon the return of the indictment, the Circuit Judge advised the Prosecuting Attorney that he desired to appoint James E. Chambers, a lawyer practicing before both the Cabell and Wayne County courts, to represent the petitioner, and requested the Prosecuting Attorney, or his assistant, to so notify Mr. Chambers. Chambers was notified and, on a date which the testimony does not fix except that it was between the time of the return of the indictment and the end of November, Chambers conferred with the petitioner in the Cabell County Jail for at least a half hour. Beckett frankly admitted his guilt of the charge upon which the indictment was returned; admitted that he was on parole at the time of the offense; and admitted that he had been convicted of felonies on at least two occasions other than the conviction upon which he was paroled. Most of the conversation between lawyer and client concerned the danger that, if convicted of the Wayne County offense, Beckett might be sentenced for life under the recidivist statutes. Chambers despaired of finding any defense to the Wayne County indictment, and suggested to Beckett that his only hope might be to plead guilty, trusting that his cooperation with the prosecuting authorities might lead them not to press the matter of the prior convictions.

After the interview, Chambers then conferred with Detective Shy and Officer Lane, two of the...