Meyers v. Gillis

• Decision Date: 23 August 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-1850,95-1850
• Citation: 93 F.3d 1147
• Parties: Philip MEYERS v. Frank D. GILLIS, Superintendent, et al.; the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania; the District Attorney of Bucks County, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 1147

93 F.3d 1147

Philip MEYERS v. Frank D. GILLIS, Superintendent, et al.; the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania; the District Attorney of Bucks County, Appellants.

No. 95-1850.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued June 24, 1996.

Decided Aug. 23, 1996.

Troy E. Leitzel (argued), Office of the District Attorney, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, for Appellants.

Thomas A. Bello (argued), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for Appellee.

Before ALITO, McKEE, and GARTH, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

ALITO, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from an order of the district court granting Philip Meyers habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Without determining whether the "presumption of correctness" found in 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(8) had been overcome, the district court concluded, contrary to the state court's finding, that there was no factual basis developed prior to the entry of Meyers' guilty plea. Concluding that the absence of an on-the-record factual basis violated Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 319, the district court granted habeas relief.

We hold, first, that Meyers did not rebut the statutory presumption of correctness. Further, following well-established and uniform authority from numerous other courts of appeals, we hold that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not require an on-the-record development of the factual basis supporting a guilty plea before entry of the plea. Rather, due process requires only that the plea be voluntary and intelligent. Thus, the failure of a state court to elicit the factual basis for the plea on the record before it is entered does not in itself provide an independent ground for habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. We therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

In July 1981, petitioner/appellee Philip Meyers ("petitioner" or "Meyers") killed Hugh Daily. Within a few days, Meyers was charged with criminal homicide and robbery. The robbery charge was subsequently dismissed.

On October 21, 1981, Meyers pleaded guilty to second-degree murder before Judge Rufe in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas. The transcript of this proceeding was destroyed, apparently pursuant to a Bucks County record-retention policy, and the transcript is no longer available. On November 9, 1981, Judge Rufe sentenced petitioner to life imprisonment. The transcript of the sentencing still exists and is part of the record. See App. 3-20.

On November 30, 1981, Meyers filed a motion for withdrawal of his guilty plea and for appointment of new counsel. In January 1982, the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County acknowledged receipt of petitioner's motion. The motion was not acted upon, however, for many years.

In October 1988, Meyers filed a petition for post-conviction relief in the Court of Common Pleas. After petitioner's attorney made several amendments to the petition, Judge Rufe conducted evidentiary hearings in May and December of 1989. In August 1991, Judge Rufe denied the petition for post-conviction relief on two alternative grounds. First, he held that the petition was without merit. Second, he concluded that the petition was untimely and that granting Meyers relief would unfairly prejudice the Commonwealth. See 42 Pa. Con. Stat. § 9543(b) ("petition shall be dismissed if it appears at any time that, because of delay in filing the petition, the Commonwealth has been prejudiced either in its ability to respond to the petition or in its ability to re-try the petitioner").

Meyers appealed to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. In October 1993, that court affirmed the judgment of the Court of Common Pleas. The Superior Court did not address the merits of the petition. Rather, it held, pursuant to § 9543(b), that the petition was untimely and that granting relief would unfairly prejudice the Commonwealth. App. 120-21. Petitioner's application for allocatur in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was denied without comment in April 1994.

In November 1994, Meyers filed an application for federal habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The petition contained three grounds for relief: (1) "conviction was the result of an unknowing and involuntarily entered guilty plea;" (2) "denial of petitioner's right to a meaningful appellate review, his right to due process, and equal protection under the law;" and (3) "denial of petitioner's right to effective assistance of counsel." The district court initially dismissed the petition for failure to exhaust available state remedies. On petitioner's motion, the court vacated its order and directed the Commonwealth to file an answer.

In April 1995, the district judge scheduled an evidentiary hearing, and in May 1995, the court appointed counsel to represent petitioner. The hearing was held in July 1995. In September 1995, the district court granted petitioner habeas relief. Specifically, the court vacated Meyers' conviction and sentence and ordered that he be released from custody unless the Commonwealth entered into a new plea agreement with him or afforded him a trial. The court found that "the record unequivocally establishes that Meyers entered his guilty plea prior to the factual basis for the plea being established," and the court concluded that it "must, out of an abundance of caution and with great reluctance, follow the above authority [i.e., Pennsylvania caselaw applying Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 319] and allow Meyers to withdraw his plea." Dist. Ct. Op. at 16-19. Although Meyers raised other grounds for relief, the district court expressly declined to consider them. Dist. Ct. Op. at 16. The respondents appealed from the district court's order and obtained a stay of the order pending appeal. We now reverse.

II.

A. As mentioned, the district court found that Meyers pleaded guilty in October 1981 prior to a development of the factual basis supporting his plea. Although 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(8) was not cited or discussed by the district court, this provision should have furnished the starting point for the district court's inquiry. Title 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(8) provides that a state court's factual determinations generally "must be 'presumed to be correct' unless [they are] not 'fairly supported by the record.' " Pemberthy v. Beyer, 19 F.3d 857, 864 (3d Cir.) (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(8)), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 969, 115 S.Ct. 439, 130 L.Ed.2d 350 (1994); see also Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. 765, ----, 115 S.Ct. 1769, 1771, 131 L.Ed.2d 834 (1995) ("In habeas proceedings in federal courts, the factual findings of state courts are presumed to be correct, and may be set aside, absent procedural error, only if they are 'not fairly supported by the record.' ") (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(8)). ¹ The statute "requires the federal courts to show a high measure of deference to the factfindings made by the state courts." Sumner v. Mata, 455 U.S. 591, 598, 102 S.Ct. 1303, 1307, 71 L.Ed.2d 480 (1982). Thus, the question in a federal habeas proceeding is not whether the federal courts agree with the state court's factual finding, but whether that finding is fairly supported by the record. E.g., Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U.S. 422, 432, 103 S.Ct. 843, 849-50, 74 L.Ed.2d 646 (1983). If the state court's finding is fairly supported by the record, then the petitioner must "establish by convincing evidence that the factual determination by the State court was erroneous." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d); Hubbard v. Jeffes, 653 F.2d 99, 102 (3d Cir.1981) ("a habeas petitioner, in order to overcome state court factual determinations, must demonstrate 'by convincing evidence' that the state proceeding was inadequate or the determinations clearly erroneous"); see also Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 435, 105 S.Ct. 844, 858, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985); Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 550, 101 S.Ct. 764, 771, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981); Reese v. Fulcomer, 946 F.2d 247, 255 (3d Cir.1991), cert. denied, 503 U.S. 988, 112 S.Ct. 1679, 118 L.Ed.2d 396 (1992).

Here, after the evidentiary hearings had been conducted, Judge Rufe found that he "specifically recall[ed] giving this defendant the most complete colloquy required by law." Moreover, Judge Rufe explicitly stated that Meyers was "advised of the matters required by Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 319," including "whether there [was] a factual basis for the plea." App. 106-08. Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(8), these findings "shall be presumed correct" if they are "fairly supported by the record."

Although only Meyers testified that the factual basis was not placed on the record prior to acceptance of the plea, the district judge found that "the record unequivocally establishes that Meyers entered his guilty plea prior to the factual basis for the plea being established." Dist. Ct. Op. at 16. The district court admitted that Judge Rufe "administered a full colloquy to Meyers on October 21, 1981," but the court decided that "the record does not independently establish that the factual basis for Meyers' guilty plea was established at the hearing on October 21, 1981 or that Judge Rufe included it in his colloquy." Dist. Ct. Op. at 17 (emphasis in original). The district court went on to find that "the evidence detailing the factual basis for Meyers' crime was not presented until Meyers was sentenced on November 9, 1981, some two and one half weeks after Judge Rufe accepted Meyers' guilty plea." Dist. Ct. Op. at 17-18 (emphasis in original). The district judge relied on the prosecutor's statement at the beginning of the November sentencing proceeding that "[w]e are here to establish the factual basis of th[e] plea." Dist. Ct. Op. at 18-19. The court concluded that although it could not "rule out the possibility that Judge Rufe himself may have advised Meyers of the factual basis for his plea as part of the colloquy on October 21, 1981, there is no transcript or...