Gilbert v. Sowders

• Citation: 646 F.2d 1146
• Decision Date: 02 April 1981
• Docket Number: No. 79-3597,79-3597
• Parties: Daniel Duane GILBERT, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Dewey SOWDERS, Superintendent, Kentucky State Penitentiary, Respondent- Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

Page 1146

646 F.2d 1146

Daniel Duane GILBERT, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Dewey SOWDERS, Superintendent, Kentucky State Penitentiary,

Respondent- Appellant.

No. 79-3597.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued April 4, 1980.

Decided April 2, 1981.

C. David Clauss, and Gerald Henry, Asst. Attys. Gen., Frankfort, Ky., for respondent-appellant.

David E. Murrell, Public Advocate, Kevin Michael McNally, Asst. Public Advocate, Frankfort, Ky. (Court-appointed), for petitioner-appellee.

Before EDWARDS, Chief Judge, and ENGEL and JONES, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

In this case Warden Sowders appeals from a District Judge's decision granting defendant Gilbert's petition for writ of habeas corpus after the District Court determined that he had been denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel during the appeal of his Kentucky conviction for kidnapping.

This proceeding arises from a situation where retained counsel violated a highly technical procedural rule which resulted in Gilbert's case being dismissed.

Counsel had performed every requirement of the Kentucky appellate rules, except one. He had petitioned for an extension of 60 days for filing the record on appeal while there was time for the extension to be granted. The rules allowed such a 60-day extension. Actually, the extension had been granted by the order, but had not been entered by the clerk of court. Gilbert's counsel's ¹ technical violation was that he failed to insure that the order was timely entered as is required by the Kentucky case law.

Kentucky has, of course, a right to enforce its own rules of procedure, including the unusual requirement that the lawyer see to it that the clerk performs his public obligation.

We cannot, however, avoid the conclusion that the failure of the Kentucky Supreme Court to grant appellant's counsel's motions for reconsideration of the dismissal of the appeal was arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of due process of law, as protected by the United States Constitution. By these motions the Supreme Court had been fully advised as to the obviously sincere attempt to perfect an appeal and the miniscule nature of the defect. Appellant had been sentenced to sentences totaling 105 years. Kentucky's Constitution grants such a person a direct appeal to the Supreme Court of Kentucky. Ky.Const. § 110(2)(b).

The judgment of the District Court granting the writ is affirmed.

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge, concurring.

I concur in the judgment that Kentucky's incarceration of Daniel Duane Gilbert violates the United States Constitution. I write separately because I believe that the majority misconceives the issue presented by this case.

I.

Gilbert was convicted of attempted kidnapping, wanton endangerment in the first degree, two counts of first-degree robbery, kidnapping, and first-degree rape. On December 2, 1976, he was sentenced to 105 years imprisonment. A notice of appeal was filed on December 10, 1976. Gilbert, an indigent, was appealing in forma pauperis with the volunteer assistance of trial counsel.

Kentucky's rules of procedure require that the record on appeal be filed within sixty days of the filing of the notice of appeal, unless the trial court by order extends the time an additional sixty days. ¹ Though the clerk of the trial court and the court reporter actually prepare the transcript of record and of evidence ², respectively, Gilbert's appellate counsel has the responsibility to file the record. ³ When it became obvious that the trial court clerk could not prepare and transmit the record to the appellate court by February 8, 1977, Gilbert's appellate counsel filed a motion and order for an extension. This motion for an extension of time was filed on February 4, 1977, before the expiration of the initial sixty-day period as required by Rule CR 73.08. However, the order of the trial court granting the extension of time for filing the record on appeal was not timely docketed, even though lodged by counsel with the clerk. ⁴ On February 22, 1977, the trial court entered a nunc pro tunc order extending the deadline for filing the record. The record was filed on March 21, 1977.

On April 19, 1977, the state moved for dismissal of Gilbert's appeal because the trial court's order extending the filing deadline was void. Thus, the state argued that the record on appeal was untimely filed. The Kentucky Supreme Court dismissed Gilbert's appeal on May 18, 1977. A motion to reconsider was denied.

Gilbert filed a motion in the trial court to reinstate his appeal. On February 2, 1978 his motion was granted. Gilbert refiled his notice of appeal and both sides thoroughly briefed the case. Again, the Kentucky Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and Gilbert's motion for reconsideration was denied.

Thereafter, Gilbert filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Western District of Kentucky. He alleged that his appellate counsel's failure to comply with Kentucky's rules of appellate procedure, causing the dismissal of his appeal, violated his right to effective assistance of counsel. The district court granted the writ. Kentucky appeals.

II.

Gilbert's appellate counsel's motion for an extension of time was timely filed. However, by February 8, 1977, the last day on which to receive an extension, an order granting such had not been docketed. Under Kentucky law, a court's order is effective only after it has been signed by the judge and noted in the docket by the clerk. Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Greer Brothers and Young, 548 S.W.2d 167 (Ky.App.1977); Murrell v. City of Hurstbourne Acres, 401 S.W.2d 60 (Ky.1966). Thus, appellate counsel's failure to ensure that the clerk performed his duty to docket the order granting the extension resulted in the dismissal of Gilbert's appeal. Gilbert's appeal was dismissed pursuant to Kentucky's rules of procedure.

The majority's opinion holds that "Kentucky has a right to enforce its own procedural rules." However, the majority's opinion also holds that it is "arbitrary and capricious" for the Kentucky Supreme Court to deny Gilbert's motion for reconsideration. In my view, the denial of Gilbert's motion to reconsider is "arbitrary and capricious" only if it "did not have a real and substantial relation to the ends sought to be attained." Isaac v. Engle, 646 F.2d 1129 (6th Cir. 1980) (en banc) (Jones, concurring). If, as stated by the majority, "Kentucky has a right to enforce its own procedural rules," thereby dismissing Gilbert's appeal, then Kentucky also has a right to deny motions to reconsider the dismissal. The denial of the motion to reconsider makes final the dismissal. To label appellate counsel's failure to comply with Kentucky's rules of procedure as "miniscule" does not alter this conclusion. For these reasons, I would resolve this case as it was presented in the briefs and at oral argument.

III.

It is well settled that Gilbert, an indigent, cannot be denied assistance of counsel on an appeal of right. Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U.S. 600, 94 S.Ct. 2437, 41 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974); Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1962). Thus, the questions to be decided are: (1) whether appellate counsel must render Gilbert effective assistance; and (2) whether counsel's failure to obtain an extension of time causing the dismissal of Gilbert's appeal is ineffective assistance of counsel.

A trial counsel's obligations are well established. The plain language of the Sixth Amendment requires that "(i)n all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to have assistance of counsel for his defence." This command of the Constitution has been interpreted to mean effective assistance of counsel. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942). Effective assistance of counsel during criminal prosecutions is also "within the intendment of the due process of law clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment, Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 66, 53 S.Ct. 55, 63, 77 L.Ed. 158 (1932); Reece v. Georgia, 350 U.S. 85, 89-90, 76 S.Ct. 167, 170-171, 100 L.Ed. 77 (1955). The reasons trial counsel must render effective assistance are not difficult to fathom. As aptly stated by Justice Rehnquist:

The purpose of the trial stage from the state's point of view is to convert a criminal defendant from a person presumed innocent to one found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. To accomplish this purpose, the state employs a prosecuting attorney who presents evidence to the court, challenges any witnesses offered by the defendant, argues rulings of the court and makes direct arguments to the court and jury seeking to persuade them of the defendant's guilt.

Ross, 417 U.S. at 610, 94 S.Ct. at 2444. The assistance of counsel required under the Sixth Amendment is "counsel reasonably likely to render and rendering reasonably effective assistance," Beasley v. United States, 491 F.2d 687, 689 (6th Cir. 1974). If a trial attorney improperly exercises his discretion, the assistance of counsel rendered is constitutionally defective. Thus, an attorney must investigate all apparently substantial defenses, advise his client properly on clear points of law, and develop strategy and tactics which lawyers of ordinary training and skill consider competent. Id. See also, Michel v. Louisiana, 350 U.S. 91, 101 n. 7, 76 S.Ct. 158, 164, 100 L.Ed. 83 (1950). "Basic procedural errors are also considered in determining whether assistance of counsel has been constitutionally adequate." Beasley, 491 F.2d at 693. Most significantly, Beasley holds that trial counsel "must assert defenses in a proper and timely manner." Id. at 696 (emphasis added).

Both reason and precedent require that the right to effective counsel extend to appeals of right. Though "there are significant differences between the trial and appellate stages of a criminal proceeding,"...