Elliott v. Warden, Maryland Penitentiary, Civ. No. 14478.
Decision Date | 05 February 1965 |
Docket Number | Civ. No. 14478. |
Citation | 238 F. Supp. 416 |
Parties | John Wesley ELLIOTT v. WARDEN, MARYLAND PENITENTIARY. |
Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maryland |
Allen B. Spector, Baltimore, Md., (court-appointed), for petitioner.
Thomas B. Finan, Atty. Gen., of Maryland, and Franklin Goldstein, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, Md., for respondent.
This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a State prisoner, who is presently serving a life sentence after a conviction of first degree murder in the Criminal Court of Baltimore (Tucker and Cullen, JJ., without a jury), his original death sentence having been commuted to life imprisonment by Governor McKeldin.
Petitioner is pressing three contentions in this Court: (1) that he was denied an examination with respect to his mental competency to stand trial, which he claims his counsel requested before the trial began; (2) that his conviction was obtained by perjured testimony on the part of the witness Maude Belle Beckwith; and (3) that his conviction was obtained by the admission in evidence of a written statement which he made to the police on November 11, 1956, after his indictment on November 8, and which he now claims (a) was involuntary because he had been denied counsel, or (b) was made after indictment, when he was not represented by counsel, and had neither been advised of nor waived his right to counsel.
The Attorney General, representing respondent, denies the factual basis for contentions (1), (2) and (3) (a). In reply to contention (3) (b) he argues that the statement was exculpatory, consistent with Elliott's position throughout, and that the failure of his trial counsel to object to the statement was deliberate, thus waiving any objection to its admission. The Attorney General also takes the position that petitioner's contention (3) (b) is based upon the decision of the Supreme Court in Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246 (May 18, 1964), which was decided after the last opinion of the Court of Appeals of Maryland in this case, Elliott v. Warden, 233 Md. 649, 197 A.2d 237 (February 7, 1964), and that in the interest of comity, the Maryland Courts should be allowed to consider the effect of Massiah before this Court makes a ruling which would necessarily affect many other State Court cases.
A mass of documentary evidence has been offered, as well as the testimony of petitioner, one of the police sergeants who took the statement in question, and several other witnesses. From that evidence the Court finds the facts set out below.
Elliott, a native of North Carolina, was in his late forties at the time of the shooting. He had left school at age 12 to go to work, had been married and separated, had been convicted of assault in North Carolina and, after escaping from prison, had come to Baltimore as a fugitive from justice. After his arrival here, he began to live with Maude Belle Beckwith. That relationship continued until Christmas 1955, and was probably renewed occasionally during the first part of 1956. Sometime before September 1956, Maude Belle became enamored of Lindsay Calhoun and they applied for a marriage license on September 10. Elliott shot and killed Calhoun on the morning of September 12.
The evidence at the trial was conflicting as to just what happened on that day. The State's evidence is summarized in the opinion of the Court of Appeals of Maryland on direct appeal from the conviction. Elliott v. State, 215 Md. 152, 137 A.2d 130 (1957). Defendant testified that early that morning Calhoun had struck him over the head with a rung of a chair and had suggested that they shoot it out. Elliott further testified that he went home, got his shotgun, and fired at close range when Calhoun, passing Elliott's house, put his hand in his pocket. Elliott's principal defense has always been that he shot in self defense. Although Elliott says that he thought of turning himself over to the Baltimore City Police, in fact he hitchhiked to his family's home in Dunn, North Carolina. A day or two later he got a job in Maxton, North Carolina, some 100 miles from Dunn, where he was arrested by the FBI on a fugitive warrant on November 6, 1956. Elliott testified at his trial that he told the FBI men who arrested him in North Carolina that he "had shot a fellow". He further said he did not go into detail with them as to how he had shot the man.
The FBI promptly took Elliott to the jail at Fayetteville, where he was given a hearing before a United States Commissioner. Elliott waived extradition at the hearing. It does not appear that he either requested counsel or was offered counsel.
After learning of the arrest, the State's Attorney for Baltimore City obtained an indictment from the grand jury in Baltimore on November 8, and State officers left for Fayetteville on the evening of November 9. The next morning these officers confronted Elliott and he consented to go back to Baltimore with them. They left Fayetteville by train that evening and arrived in Baltimore about 7:30 a. m. on November 11. On the train, the officers encouraged Elliott to talk and he told them substantially the same story that he has told all along. Before the officers obtained the oral statement from Elliott on the train, they did not advise him of his rights.
About two hours after they arrived in Baltimore, the officers took a long signed statement from Elliott, in which he admitted the shooting but claimed that he acted in self defense. That statement was an elaboration of what he had said on the train and was similar to his testimony at the trial. At the beginning of the statement, the officers told Elliott: The officers did not advise him of his right to an attorney.
Elliott testified at the hearing in this Court that he had asked for permission to call an attorney in Baltimore before the statement was taken, but I do not believe his testimony, which is denied by the only officer available. Elliott is not a credible witness. A number of his statements on the stand in this Court are contradicted by statements he had previously made. Moreover, in his former petitions in the State Courts and in this Court, he has contended several times that his written statement was involuntary because he had not been advised of his right to counsel, but he has never heretofore contended that he asked for counsel or for permission to call an attorney.
On November 26, Elliott was arraigned and attempted to plead "guilty — self defense". The judge who was presiding at the arraignment interpreted this as a plea of "not guilty". Such a plea was entered and, since Elliott said he had no attorney, the presiding judge appointed E. Everett Lane, Esq., to represent him. Lane entered his appearance the next day, November 27, but shortly thereafter was appointed a Judge of the People's Court of Baltimore City. Dallas F. Nicholas, Esq., a lawyer of wide experience in the Criminal Court, was thereupon appointed counsel for Elliott and entered his appearance on January 16, 1957. Nicholas gave devoted service to his client before, during and after the trial. He saw Elliott in jail half a dozen times before the trial, obtained a copy of the written statement and showed it to Elliott, who told him that it had been voluntarily given. Nicholas decided not to object to the statement, and he and Elliott agreed that Elliott should take the stand.
The trial came on before Judge Tucker and Judge Cullen in the Criminal Court of Baltimore. One of the State's witnesses was Maude Belle Beckwith, who testified to facts tending to answer the self defense argument. She contradicted herself several times in her testimony, but there is no substantial basis for the contention that these contradictions prove deliberate perjury, and no basis whatever for the contention that the State knowingly used perjured testimony. The experienced judges, no doubt, gave such weight to her testimony as it deserved. There was other evidence, aside from the statement, which incriminated Elliott.
The trial resulted in a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. Sentence was suspended pending a motion for a new trial, which Nicholas filed and argued. The motion was denied, and on May 6, 1957, petitioner was sentenced to death. Shortly thereafter Nicholas entered an appeal to the Court of Appeals of Maryland, which resulted in an affirmance of the judgment. Elliott v. State, 215 Md. 152, 137 A.2d 130 (1957).
In February 1958, while considering an application for executive clemency, Nicholas learned that there was insanity in Elliott's immediate family, and for the first time felt that there might be some reason to ask for a mental examination. Such an examination was made by Dr. Manfred S. Guttmacher, Chief Medical Officer of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, who concluded that Elliott was "technically responsible" under the Maryland law, but that because of his mental deficiency and his mental illness (a paranoid schizophrenic type) it was questionable whether Elliott should be held to the standards of behavior required of normal persons. The prison psychiatrist had previously stated that Elliott was a low grade moron with some form of schizophrenic disorder. Reports were also obtained from Dr. Boslow, Director of the Patuxent Institution, and other doctors there, who said that, while Elliott might be a responsible agent, the nature of his illness made it questionable whether he would remain in that status for any length of time. They stated that it was likely that Elliott would become overtly psychotic in the future.
On the basis of those reports, Nicholas applied for executive clemency and the Governor concluded that although the conviction was justified by the evidence the sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment. It was so commuted...
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Elliott v. Warden, Md. Penitentiary
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