Edgerton v. State of North Carolina
| Decision Date | 14 March 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 8749.,8749. |
| Citation | 315 F.2d 676 |
| Parties | Chester L. EDGERTON, Appellant, v. STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Ronald P. Wertheim, Philadelphia, Pa. (Court-assigned counsel), (Daniel J. Meador, Charlottesville, Va., on brief), for appellant.
Harry W. McGalliard, Asst. Atty. Gen. of North Carolina (T. W. Bruton, Atty. Gen. of North Carolina, on brief), for appellee.
Before SOBELOFF, Chief Judge, and BOREMAN and J. SPENCER BELL, Circuit Judges.
The petitioner's application for a writ of habeas corpus was denied by the District Court without a plenary hearing and without requiring the State of North Carolina to file a response. This court granted leave to appeal in forma pauperis, issued a certificate of probable cause, and appointed counsel.
The District Court did, however, consider the allegations of the writ in the light of all the records of the state court proceedings relevant to a review of the federal constitutional questions in reaching its decision to deny the writ. These records are before us.
Thus the question before this court is: Does the petition allege facts which constitute a denial of petitioner's constitutional rights and which are not patently frivolous or false when considered against the record which the District Court had before it? Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ex rel. Herman v. Claudy, 350 U.S. 116, 76 S.Ct. 223, 100 L.Ed. 126 (1956). We think it does.
The petitioner alleges that he was arrested on November 19, 1957, on a warrant charging two capital offenses: burglary in the first degree, and rape; that he remained in jail without knowledge of the charges against him and without legal advice or assistance until January 14, 1958; that on January 13, 1958, the grand jury indicted him for these two offenses; that on January 14, 1958, counsel was appointed by the court at his arraignment; that on this same day his court appointed counsel approached him with a previously prepared plea of guilty to the burglary charge and urged him to sign the same in order to save his life; that he refused to sign that day, and upon his plea of not guilty his case was postponed until the next term of court; that his counsel continued to urge him to plead guilty to the burglary charge because they had obtained an agreement from the solicitor to a life sentence if he pleaded guilty. Whereupon on January 15, 1958, "relying wholly upon the loyalty and integrity of his counsel and in fear of his life and not because he was guilty", he changed his plea. On that same day the court sentenced him to jail for life, and the charge of rape was dropped.
The petition further alleges that he had been intimate on many occasions with the prosecuting witness, who swore (presumably before the grand jury) that he had been to her house only once. The petition concludes with a list of witnesses who can prove his innocence and requests a hearing.
We first examine the factual allegations of the petition against the records which were before the District Court to ascertain if they are patently false. The warrant shows that the petitioner was arrested on November 19, 1957, for offenses alleged to have been committed the night before. The record gives no evidence of the appointment of counsel until January 14, 1958, the date of the arraignment. It shows that on that day he pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea the following day with the understanding that he was to get a life sentence. Another January 15th entry shows that he was sentenced to life and committed on that day; that his then court appointed attorneys were paid a total of $100.00 for their services. Thus it would appear that the record, insofar as it goes, confirms rather than contradicts the factual allegations of the petition.
In addition to the minutes of the original trial, the court had before it an order in a state court post-conviction hearing and affidavits of the sheriff and of petitioner's counsel. The substance of the sheriff's affidavit is that when arrested the petitioner "asked him about witnesses" and was...
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