Gerberding v. Swenson

• Decision Date: 07 December 1970
• Docket Number: No. 20311.,20311.
• Citation: Gerberding v. Swenson, 435 F.2d 368 (8th Cir. 1970)
• Parties: Wilburn Jerome GERBERDING, Appellee, v. Harold R. SWENSON, Warden, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

435 F.2d 368 (1970)

Wilburn Jerome GERBERDING, Appellee, v.Harold R. SWENSON, Warden, Appellant.

No. 20311.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

December 7, 1970.

John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., and Gene E. Voigts, First Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Mo., filed brief for appellant.

Robert G. Duncan and Lewis E. Pierce, Kansas City, Mo., filed brief for appellee.

Before GIBSON and LAY, Circuit Judges, and HUNTER, District Judge.

GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

The appelleeWilburn Jerome Gerberding was granted a writ of habeas corpus by the District Court of the Western District of Missouri relieving him of a life sentence imposed under the Missouri Second Offender Act.¹The State has appealed, claiming the sentence under attack is valid.The question presented for review is whether a conviction obtained in a one-stage penalty enhancement trial is constitutionally infirm, where one of three prior felony convictions admitted on the enhancement issue was retroactively invalid for lack of counsel, and where only one prior felony conviction is necessary to support enhancement of punishment under the Second Offender Act in question.

Gerberding was indicted on February 1, 1952, in St. Louis, Missouri, for robbery in the first degree with a notation that the Missouri Second Offender Act was applicable, since he had previously been convicted of three felonies.The Second Offender Act applicable at that time, R.S.Mo. § 556.280(1949), provided that when any person convicted of an offense punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary was subsequently convicted of any felony offense, he would be punished by the maximum provided for that offense.At Gerberding's trial, commenced on February 2, 1953, the State introduced evidence that Gerberding had been convicted of three felonies: (1) burglary and larceny in Illinois on September 28, 1936; (2) robbery in Illinois on November 24, 1940; (3) larceny of an automobile in Georgia on October 25, 1945; and further that he had been imprisoned and subsequently discharged on all of the above sentences (a necessary requisite for imposing enhanced penalties under the Second Offender Act).Gerberding was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to life imprisonment.This conviction was affirmed on appeal.State v. Gerberding, 272 S.W.2d 230(Mo.1954).

On February 9, 1968, Gerberding filed a motion to vacate this judgment and sentence pursuant to Missouri Supreme Court Rule 27.26, V.A.M.R., providing for post-conviction review.The trial court, upon remand from the Missouri Supreme Court directing an evidentiary hearing, overruled the motion to vacate on February 14, 1969; denial of that motion was affirmed by the Missouri Supreme Court on January 12, 1970.Gerberding v. State, 448 S.W.2d 904(Mo.1970).Gerberding then on February 27, 1970, sought relief from the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

It is uncontested at this stage of the post-conviction proceedings that Gerberding's conviction for burglary and larceny in 1936 was based on a plea of guilty made without representation by counsel.Gerberding was 18 years of age at that time and there is no contention that he waived his right to counsel.The District Court, on the basis of Burgett v. Texas, 389 U.S. 109, 88 S.Ct. 258, 19 L.Ed.2d 319(1967), andBeto v. Stacks, 408 F.2d 313(5th Cir.1969), held the use of the now constitutionally infirm conviction could not be said to constitute harmless error and voided the entire conviction.

The Missouri Supreme Court in its review on this matter, Gerberding v. State, 448 S.W.2d 904(1970), held that under the Missouri enhancement statute only one prior felony conviction was necessary for enhancement of penalty and that since two other valid prior felony convictions existed on the record, the additional use of the infirm conviction was "harmless beyond a reasonable doubt", as "the ultimate fact to be established was the existence of one prior felony conviction."Id. at 906.The Missouri Court further noted at 906:

"Other than the evidence of prior convictions, and the instructions to the jury, there was no further reference to such prior convictions.The matter was not commented upon in the voir dire examination of the jury, and according to the original trial record there were no arguments made by either counsel at the close of the case.By its verdict the jury found appellant guilty of robbery and that he had a prior felony conviction."

In Burgett v. Texas, supra, the Supreme Court, in a 6 to 3 decision, held a trial under the Texas recidivist statute was constitutionally infirm where the State, in an opening statement, had called to the attention of the jury four prior felony convictions which the court later did not allow to be introduced into evidence.The court instructed the jury to disregard the prior offenses, and the question of enhancement of punishment under the recidivist statutes was not submitted to the jury.Mr. Justice Douglas, speaking for the majorityat p. 115 of 389 U.S., at p. 262 of 88 S.Ct., held "the admission of a prior criminal conviction which is constitutionally infirm under the standards of Gideon v. Wainwright372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L. Ed.2d 799 is inherently prejudicial, and we are unable to say that the instructions to disregard it made the constitutional error `harmless beyond a reasonable doubt' within the meaning of Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705," and further held that Spencer v. Texas, 385 U.S. 554, 87 S.Ct. 648, 17 L.Ed.2d 606(1967), was not relevant.²

The decision in Burgett was that the use of felony convictions where no predicate existed for their admission was prejudicial.But the limited use of properly admitted convictions is permitted in recidivist proceedings, for impeachment where applicable, and other narrowly defined situations to show pattern, intent, a planned course of action, or other material facts in issue.

In Beto v. Stacks, supra, the Fifth Circuit in an enhancement case held the use of one invalid prior felony conviction invalidated the whole conviction and ordered a new trial because of the "infectious influence which the use of a void conviction had on the jury's determination of his guilt or innocence."408 F. 2d at 318.The Beto court refused to rule on whether the defendant Stacks could have been resentenced under another Texas recidivist statute which only required one prior felony conviction of a certain type, and held also at 318, "the simple fact that a constitutionally infirm conviction was used at appellee's trial now makes it incumbent upon the State to show `beyond a reasonable doubt' that the jury did not rely on such conviction `to support guilt.'Burgett v. Texas, supra;Chapman v. California, 1967, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705."

The Ninth Circuit in Tucker v. Craven, 421 F.2d 139, cert. denied, 398 U.S. 929, 90 S.Ct. 1822, 26 L.Ed.2d 92(1970), held that the use of two prior invalid convictions not only voided the habitual criminal conviction sentence but tainted the guilt determination on the substantive charge and that the...