Grandison v. Warden, Maryland House of Correction, 77-2186

• Citation: 580 F.2d 1231
• Decision Date: 25 July 1978
• Docket Number: No. 77-2186,77-2186
• Parties: Anthony GRANDISON, Appellant, v. WARDEN, MARYLAND HOUSE OF CORRECTION and Mrs. Linda A. Corrick, Records Supervisor, Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

Page 1231

580 F.2d 1231

Anthony GRANDISON, Appellant, v. WARDEN, MARYLAND HOUSE OF CORRECTION and Mrs. Linda A Corrick, Records Supervisor, Appellees.

No. 77-2186.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued March 6, 1978.

Decided July 25, 1978.

Dorothy Britt and Ronald Locke, Third Year Law Students (Peter S. Smith, Adrienne E. Volenik, Maryland Juvenile Law Clinic, Baltimore, Md., Patricia Butler and Elvira White, Third Year Law Students, on brief), for appellant.

Diane G. Goldsmith, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, Md. (Francis B. Burch, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, Clarence W. Sharp, Asst. Atty. Gen., Chief, Crim. Div., Kathleen M. Sweeney, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, Md., on brief), for appellees.

Before HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge, RUSSELL, Circuit Judge, and HOFFMAN ^*, District Judge.

WALTER E. HOFFMAN, Senior District Judge:

The appellant, Anthony Grandison, has appealed from the denial by the District Court of Maryland of his application for a writ of habeas corpus. The primary issues raised for our consideration are whether the appellant waived his right to be tried as a juvenile offender by misrepresenting his age, and whether the use of prior convictions to impeach appellant's testimony at trial violated his rights to due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution when those convictions were held to be void under Long v. Robinson, 316 F.Supp. 22 (D.Md.1970), Aff'd, 436 F.2d 1116 (4th Cir. 1971), decided subsequent to appellant's trial. In Woodall v. Pettibone, 465 F.2d 49 (4th Cir. 1972), Cert. denied, 413 U.S. 922, 93 S.Ct. 3054, 37 L.Ed.2d 1044 (1973), this court held Long retroactive. We affirm in part, for different reasons, and remand in part.

The history of the appellant's dealings with the Maryland criminal justice system is, unfortunately, not an uncommon one. On February 24, 1970, the appellant received a twenty-year sentence as a result of his convictions in a Maryland court of robbery with a deadly weapon, two assaults, attempted escape, and the unlawful wearing of a concealed weapon. Appellant perpetrated these offenses in Baltimore during 1969, when he was sixteen years of age. The offenses were interrelated, and were handled in a single trial. At that time, Maryland courts recognized the legislative framework created by the interaction of a Baltimore City ordinance and a Maryland statute: Article 4, section 240(b) of the Charter and Public Local Laws of Baltimore City, and Article 26, sections 51-71 of the Maryland Code of Public and General Laws, respectively. The former provided a juvenile age limit of sixteen years, while the latter exempted Baltimore City youth from the general statewide juvenile age limit of eighteen years. The effect of these two statutes was to provide juvenile court jurisdiction over sixteen and seventeen-year old children in circuit courts in all areas of Maryland except Baltimore City.

On August 6, 1970, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland held the above distinction was arbitrary and unreasonable, and constituted a denial of the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Long v. Robinson, 316 F.Supp. 22 (D.Md.1970). On January 18, 1971, this court affirmed. Long v. Robinson, 436 F.2d 1116 (4th Cir. 1971).

On February 1, 1971, the appellant's convictions were affirmed by the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland. Certiorari was denied by the Maryland Court of Appeals on April 5, 1971. The appellant challenged the validity of the 1970 convictions in a state habeas corpus action on the ground that he was sixteen at the time of the offenses, and that the juvenile court had never waived jurisdiction to the adult court. Long v. Robinson, supra, was cited as authority. The state judge rejected this contention, and premised his ruling on a finding of fact that, although the appellant was actually sixteen years old at the time of the offenses, at several crucial stages of the proceedings he had misrepresented his age to the court as nineteen. On this basis, it was determined that the appellant was estopped from asserting the invalidity of the convictions. See Supplemental Brief of Appellees at 8-9. ¹

On November 29, 1975, appellant was found guilty of sodomy and assault by a jury in the Criminal Court of Baltimore. It is this conviction with which we are concerned in the present action. In a pretrial motion, the appellant sought to preclude the state from introducing evidence of his 1970 convictions, on the ground that they were void under Long v. Robinson, supra. In fact, on November 25, 1975, the appellant filed for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Although appellant told the state trial judge, in the instant case, that a federal habeas corpus proceeding on the same ground was pending, the trial judge ruled, on the basis of the prior state habeas corpus decision, that the convictions could properly be used to impeach the credibility of the appellant as a witness.

The evidence was as follows:

Appellant's conviction arose out of an incident which occurred on May 27, 1975, in the Baltimore City Jail involving Thomas Maddox, who was awaiting trial in the U.S. District Court on a charge of conspiracy to manufacture DMT, an hallucinogenic drug. Mr. Maddox, who had previously been convicted on a charge of distribution of methadone, had been incarcerated in the City Jail since March 29, 1975.

Maddox testified that he was the subject of three separate sexual attacks by fellow inmates of the City Jail on May 27th. The series of attacks began at approximately 10:00 a. m. when an inmate known as 'Fly' asked Maddox to accompany him to the cell of another inmate known as 'Buttons', apparently just to talk. The policy of the Baltimore City Jail, as described by appellant's witness Lieutenant Joseph Frank, a correctional institute employee, was to keep the individual cells open for a period of 12 hours a day so that the inmates were free to move around within the larger enclosed area, 'M' section, and visit each other in their respective cells. The inmates were allowed to drape blankets and other materials over the bars of their cells as a shield against the lights, and to provide a certain degree of 'privacy.' Mr. Maddox stated that he covered his cell with a garbage bag liner.

When the prosecution's chief witness entered 'Buttons' ' cell, 'Fly' suddenly held a sharp pencil to his throat to force him to submit to homosexual relations. Under fear of physical harm, Mr. Maddox testified, he submitted. After returning to his cell where he confided in his roommate, Ernest Brinkley, he rested. He said he did not report the incident for fear of retaliation.

At approximately 12:00 p. m. the same day, another inmate, 'Sonny', entered Maddox's cell and threatened him with a shank a metal rod which, when sharpened at one end, is used as a knife to force him to yield to another sexual assault. According to the victim's testimony, Sonny raped him and then left. Shortly thereafter, the appellant whom Maddox knew for about 2 weeks, entered the cell and 'calmed me down a little bit.' The appellant returned later, at approximately 6:00 p. m.

When the appellant returned, both Maddox and Brinkley were in the cell, and, according to the testimony of the cell mates, appellant talked for awhile on the subject of having homosexual relations with Maddox. The latter at first refused, but later yielded when appellant stated that it would be wise for Maddox to engage in relations with him because 'if you don't, you are going to end up doing it with a lot of other people in this jail or in this section.' Although it was conceded at trial that the victim did not resist, and in fact, undressed himself, he testified that he did so only because he 'was scared for (his) life.' Maddox stated that the appellant's penis penetrated his anus during the course of the sexual assault.

Brinkley had left the cell prior to the perpetration of the sexual act, but returned shortly thereafter to find the appellant sitting in the cell and Maddox lying on the bed without a shirt. Appellant told the two of them not to report the incident to anyone. At that time, the appellant told Maddox to accompany him to the shower, and they left the cell together.

For the next two days, Maddox remained in his cell to avoid confrontation and any further incidents. However, he was called from his cell on May 29th, at about 8:30 p. m., to see the U.S. Deputy Marshall (sic) for some reason unknown to him. His trip was interrupted when he met 'Buttons' who, with the help of another inmate, forced Maddox into a dark cell, whereupon he was sexually assaulted orally and anally by several individuals. Afterwards, he was moved to a different section of the prison; and when recalled to the Marshall's (sic) office, on the next morning, he informed the authorities of the series of attacks.

Dr. John F. Cadden, Jr., a medical witness for the State, testified that he examined the victim on May 30, 1975 at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital. His examination revealed several blood blisters in the area of the rectum and a massively lacerated mucosa. He concluded that Maddox had been raped sometime within the previous 2 to 3 days. In addition, the doctor indicated that he found several bruises on the neck and both arms of the victim.

Appellant testified on his own behalf and denied having sexual relations with any of the inmates including the prosecuting witness. He stated that he was not in the cell block area from 10:00 a. m. to 12:30 p. m. the day of the 27th, and that he was using the telephone from 2:20 p. m. to 6:30 p. m. that same day. He also denied having any knowledge of any sexual attack on Mr. Maddox.

Anthony Grandison v. State of Maryland, No. 80 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, October 26, 1976) at 1-4.

The appellant was...