Gandy v. Watkins, Civ. A. No. 2110-N.
| Citation | 237 F. Supp. 266 |
| Decision Date | 15 March 1965 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 2110-N. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama |
| Parties | Ralph Leon GANDY, Petitioner, v. John C. WATKINS, Warden, Respondent. |
Herman H. Hamilton, Jr., of Capell, Howard, Knabe & Cobbs, Montgomery, Ala., for petitioner.
Richmond M. Flowers, Atty. Gen., and Mark Anderson, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., State of Alabama, Montgomery, Ala., for respondent.
Certiorari Denied March 15, 1965. See 85 S.Ct. 1032.
The petitioner Gandy by order of this Court made and entered in this case on August 11, 1964, files in forma pauperis his application for a writ of habeas corpus. On September 8, 1964, this Court, upon the request of the petitioner Gandy made on September 4, 1964, appointed the Honorable Herman H. Hamilton, Jr., attorney at law, Montgomery, Alabama, to represent petitioner upon this proceeding.
Gandy alleges that he is presently incarcerated by the State of Alabama at Kilby and/or Draper Prison, both being located within this district, in violation of his constitutional rights. His basic complaint is that his constitutional rights were violated by the State of Alabama, acting through the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama, in 1961, during which year he was prosecuted and convicted in said court for the offense of robbery and was sentenced to be incarcerated in the State penitentiary for a term of ten years. The petitioner is presently serving this sentence.
As required by the order of this Court, the warden holding petitioner Gandy in custody, appeared in this cause through his attorney, the Attorney General for the State of Alabama, by filing a return and answer to Gandy's petition. This return and answer was filed with this Court on August 28, 1964. As a part of the return and answer of the respondent warden, a motion to dismiss the petition for a writ of habeas corpus was presented. This Court, by order made and entered on August 31, 1964, determined and held that the matter was not to be disposed of on this motion to dismiss, but that a plenary hearing was to be conducted into the matter. A pretrial hearing was held on September 22, 1964, and, as reflected by the pretrial order of this Court, it was determined and held that the petitioner Gandy had exhausted the remedies available to him in the courts of the State of Alabama, as required by Title 28, Section 2254, United States Code. Upon the pretrial hearing, it was further determined that the inquiry to be conducted by this Court upon the plenary hearing would be upon the following issues:
The matter came on for a hearing on October 30, 1964. The submission is upon all the pleadings and exhibits thereto, the original trial transcript that has been filed with this Court by the respondent, the depositions of the arresting officer, the officer conducting the search that produced the evidence that Gandy complains of, and the circuit solicitor who prosecuted the case resulting in Gandy's conviction and present incarceration. The evidence also includes the oral testimony taken before this Court. Upon this submission, this Court finds that in the early evening on or about August 26, 1960, a Mr. Leon Wesson was forcibly robbed of $348 by three men and one woman; the robbery occurred in or near Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama, and was immediately reported to the Birmingham City Police by the victim, at which time an identification of the robbers and the circumstances surrounding the robbery were detailed to the police officers. Shortly thereafter a call was broadcast over the police radio for the arrest of the petitioner, Ralph Leon Gandy. About 12:45 a. m., on August 27, 1960, Gandy was arrested while occupying a room in the Hotel Mecca in the City of Birmingham, Alabama. Entrance was gained to the room by the police officers after knocking and being freely admitted by Gandy. At this time Gandy was arrested without a warrant having been issued. A day or so later the victim Wesson definitely identified Gandy, the woman, and one of the other men who participated in his robbery, by picking them from a police lineup. An indictment was returned on October 7, 1960, charging Gandy with the offense of robbery.1 Gandy was represented upon the preliminary hearing, the arraignment, and upon the trial by his own counsel. The trial record in this case reflects that he was fairly and adequately represented. The jury, upon the matter being submitted to them, returned a verdict of guilty and fixed his punishment in the penitentiary for a period of ten years.
Sometime around 12:00 noon or 12:30 p. m. on the same day that Gandy had been arrested at approximately 12:45 a. m., a detective of the detective department of the City of Birmingham, Alabama, was summoned to the hotel by the owner and manager of the hotel where Gandy had been arrested. At the request of the manager and after receiving information from the manager that several objects had been found in Gandy's room, the city detective, accompanied by the manager and at the specific request of the manager, proceeded to the room where Gandy was arrested and also to the room adjoining where Gandy's codefendant (who has also been convicted for this same offense) was arrested on the same occasion, and found under the rug several items with Mr. Leon Wesson's name on them. All of these items were later identified by Wesson as being items that had been removed from him during the course of the robbery. These items were removed by the detective and became part of the evidence in the case against Gandy. In connection with the removal of these items, the testimony in this case shows that the city detective was interrogated as follows:
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