Chessman v. Teets, 34375.
| Decision Date | 31 January 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 34375.,34375. |
| Citation | 138 F. Supp. 761 |
| Parties | Caryl CHESSMAN, Petitioner, v. Harley O. TEETS, Warden, California State Penitentiary, San Quentin, California, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of California |
George T. Davis, San Francisco, Cal., Rosalie Asher, Sacramento, Cal., for petitioner.
William M. Bennett, Arlo Smith, Deputy Attys. Gen., of the State of California, for respondent.
The petition for a writ of habeas corpus herein was denied by this Court on January 4, 1955 upon the ground that, as a matter of law, it did not tender a federal question. Application of Chessman, 128 F.Supp. 600. The Court of Appeal of this Circuit, en banc, affirmed, 221 F.2d 276. On October 17, 1955, the Supreme Court granted certiorari, reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeal and remanded the cause here for a hearing. 350 U.S. 3, 76 S.Ct. 34. On November 30, 1955, pursuant to the mandate of the Supreme Court, and, upon application of counsel for petitioner, we issued a writ of habeas corpus requiring respondent to produce petitioner for hearing on December 8, 1955. On said last mentioned date petitioner, being produced in Court, the Court set the hearing ordered by the Supreme Court for January 9, 1956. Thereafter, upon request of petitioner, the Court continued the date of the hearing to January 10, 1956; thereafter, at the request of petitioner for a further continuance, the Court set the hearing for January 16, 1956. The hearing commenced on January 16, 1956 and continued through January 17, 18, 19, 20, 23 and January 24, 1956; on January 25, 1956, without argument, the cause was submitted for decision.
The petitioner was represented by attorneys George T. Davis and Rosalie Asher. The record shows that petitioner also had the services and aid of an investigator and a shorthand reporter. The following witnesses were produced on behalf of petitioner and testified:
and offered 9 exhibits, 8 of which were admitted in evidence. The transcript is 923 pages in length. The exhibits consist of the record in all the Chessman proceedings in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, the Superior Court of Marin County, The Supreme Court of the State of California and also the records of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles County Counsel, and the Secretary of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, with respect to the appeal transcript in Chessman's case.
The record shows that attorney George T. Davis was retained by petitioner to represent him in this proceeding on October 26, 1955. By written contract, his compensation was fixed at $10,000 in cash, plus a biography of George T. Davis to be written by petitioner for said George T. Davis within one year, the value of which was agreed to be $40,000.
From time to time, commencing with December 8, 1955, upon the request of petitioner and his counsel, the Court entered orders directing the respondent to provide various facilities for consultation between petitioner and his counsel, daily from 9 a. m. to 6 p. m., at San Quentin State Prison, where petitioner was, and is, confined awaiting execution of the death penalty. Upon further complaint by petitioner as to the inadequacy of the facilities for consultation, the Court of its own motion, arranged with the Federal Director of Prisons to remove the petitioner, pending the hearing, to Alcatraz Prison, where facilities more to the liking of petitioner could be provided; petitioner failed to avail himself of the quarters as offered. The petitioner, apparently being dissatisfied with the efforts of the Court in this regard, filed an affidavit and application to disqualify the Court on the ground of personal bias and prejudice, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 144. Disqualification was denied upon the ground that the petition on its face, as a matter of law, failed to set forth any facts showing personal bias or prejudice on the part of the Court. Upon the commencement of the hearing and upon his application, the Court allowed the petitioner to proceed in forma pauperis pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915. In addition, the Court arranged with the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, for the United States to pay the cost of a daily transcript of the testimony to be furnished to the petitioner and his attorney.
It is appropriate here to record the many collateral proceedings and matters initiated by petitioner from December 8, 1955 to and through the hearings themselves. Not because of any materiality to the resolution of the factual issue which the Court has determined, but to demonstrate the provisions made to afford petitioner a full and adequate hearing of the factual issues. A complete list of the various applications and motions made by or on behalf of the petitioner, and the Court's rulings thereon, follows as Appendix A.
The petitioner, in addition to alleging that the prosecuting attorney and substitute reporter selected by him had by corrupt arrangement prepared a fraudulent transcript on appeal, also alleged that he was denied due process because of alleged irregularities in the procedures followed in the settlement of the transcript on appeal, such as, denial of demand to be personally present at the various hearings in the Superior Court with respect to the settlement and certification of the transcript on appeal. All such issues have heretofore been determined adversely to petitioner, as a matter of law, by the Supreme Court of California,1 by this Court,2 and by the Court of Appeal on review.3 Certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States.4
Required now to be considered by this Court, under the mandate of the Supreme Court, 350 U.S. 3, 76 S.Ct. 34, is the factual issue as to whether the prosecuting attorney and the substitute reporter selected by him, by corrupt arrangement, prepared a fraudulent transcript. Such a fraud, if perpetrated, the Supreme Court has held to be a denial of due process of law in violation of the 14th Amendment. 350 U.S. 3, 76 S.Ct. 34.
The undisputed evidence discloses, in summary, the following proceedings in connection with the preparation and settlement of the transcript on the automatic appeal from the judgment and sentence of the trial Court:
After the verdict of the jury and prior to motion for new trial and imposition of sentence, Perry, the court reporter who had reported the trial proceedings, suddenly died. He had evidenced no signs of debility or ineffectiveness prior to his death. At the time of his death he had already transcribed and typed, or dictated into dictaphone cylinders, 646 pages of the typewritten transcript of the evidence. The proceedings with relation to the motion for new trial and judgment were reported by another court reporter, one Person. No claim of any irregularity or incorrectness in his transcript of such proceedings is made.
At the hearing on motion for new trial the trial judge directed the Clerk of the Criminal Court to request the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County to provide compensation for the services of a reporter to transcribe the balance of the record not transcribed by the dead reporter so as to complete the record required under the automatic appeal provisions of California Law. Thereafter, the trial judge directed J. Miller Leavy, the deputy district attorney who had prosecuted the Chessman case, to secure the shorthand notes of the Chessman trial from the office of the deceased reporter and to locate a reporter who could transcribe them. Leavy obtained the notes, and, after consultation with several of the official reporters of the Superior Court, turned the notes over to one of them, Stanley Fraser. After study of the notes, Fraser stated that he would be able to transcribe them.
In the meantime, the Secretary of the Superior Court had requested an opinion from the Los Angeles County Counsel as to the proper method of implementing the trial judge's direction that the Board of Supervisors be requested to provide compensation for the transcription of the notes of the deceased reporter. The County Counsel recommended that the trial judge make a formal order directing the cost of such transcription to be paid from the County Treasury. Such an order was made by the trial judge on July 20, 1948. Mr. Leavy, at the request of the Secretary of the Superior Court, then consulted with several of the official court reporters as to the equitable rate of compensation for this transcription, and reported that the consensus of opinion was that an equitable rate would be three times the usual rate. The Secretary of the Superior Court then requested the Board of Supervisors to enter into a contract for the transcription of the notes, and the Chief Administrative Officer of Los Angeles County recommended to the Board that they enter into such a contract with Stanley Fraser at the suggested rate of three times the usual rate. Accordingly, the Board on August 3, 1948 directed the County Counsel to prepare the necessary form of contract. Shortly thereafter, the Chief Administrative Officer of Los Angeles County notified the Board that he had been informed by the County Public Defender that at least two other reporters were called upon to transcribe the deceased reporter's notes and could not do so. He...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Chessman v. Teets
...failed to sustain the allegations of his application. Judgment discharging the writ was accordingly entered on that day. Chessman v. Teets, D.C., 138 F. Supp. 761. An application for a certificate of probable cause was granted by a judge of this court, thereby sanctioning this The only alle......
-
White v. Rhay
...habeas corpus reported in 128 F.Supp. 600 was denied, but before the appeal was completed on the federal habeas corpus.); Chessman v. Teets, D.C., 138 F.Supp. 761, affirmed 239 F.2d 205 (C.A.9th), vacated 354 U.S. 156, 77 S.Ct. 1127, 1 L.Ed.2d 1253 (1956); Chessman v. Superior Court, 50 Cal......
-
Chessman v. Teets
...there was no connivance between the prosecutor and the substitute reporter, for such was the finding of the District Court. Chessman v. Teets, 138 F.Supp. 761. And those findings are not subject to challenge, as we limited our grant of certiorari. What we are told—and all that we are told—i......
-
People v. Chessman
...found against defendant's allegations of fraud and inaccuracy in the transcript, and discharged the writ of habeas corpus. Chessman v. Teets, D.C., 138 F.Supp. 761. The court of appeals affirmed. Chessman v. Teets (October 18, 1956), 239 F.2d April 8, 1957. The United States Supreme Court g......