Monk v. Blackburn
| Citation | 605 F.2d 837 |
| Decision Date | 31 October 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-3380,78-3380 |
| Parties | Danny MONK and Jimmy Jiles, Petitioners-Appellants, v. Frank BLACKBURN, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) |
Paul M. Haygood (Court-Appointed), New Orleans, La., for petitioners-appellants.
Leon H. Whitten, Dist. Atty., Jonesboro, La., for respondent-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
Before THORNBERRY, CLARK and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges.
Danny Monk and Jimmy Jiles were convicted by the State of Louisiana of armed robbery. After an unsuccessful appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court, they petitioned the district court for a writ of habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court rejected their request for habeas relief without a hearing. On this appeal Monk and Jiles contend that the district court erred on two grounds in refusing to grant habeas relief. First they contend that the state trial judge incorrectly applied a Louisiana statute which prohibits a party from impeaching his own witness. Second they assert that even if the state trial judge's interpretation of Louisiana law was correct, the application of the statute violated their due process right to present witnesses in their own behalf. We affirm.
In April of 1974, the People's Bank of Chatham, Louisiana, was robbed by two armed men. The two robbers entered the bank at approximately 12:45 p. m., wearing coveralls, gloves, ski masks, and visored motorcycle helmets. One of the tellers and the cashier of the People's Bank testified that one robber was wearing blue-gray coveralls with long sleeves and the other green coveralls with short sleeves. Both men had on light-colored gloves and were armed with pistols, one of which looked like a German Luger. One robber had on a red or burnt-orange motorcycle helmet and the other wore a white helmet with black markings on it. Underneath their helmets both men wore ski masks. One of the robbers had a white pillow case into which he ordered the bank teller to put money. The amount of money missing from the bank after the robbery was $25,018.21. The two men exited the bank at ten or eleven minutes before 1:00 p. m. A gas station attendant, who was working at a service station located diagonally across an intersection from the bank at the time of the robbery, testified that he saw the two men enter the bank, come out of the bank four or five minutes later, and ride off together on a green motorcycle, which had tape over the license plate and which he thought to be a Honda 350. At approximately 1:00 p. m., Deputy Sheriff Alfred Richardson, who was in a patrol car approximately four miles from Chatham, received a radio call stating that the People's Bank had been robbed by two men who escaped on a motorcycle or motorcycles. Almost immediately, he saw two men come up the road on a motorcycle, which he pursued with his red light flashing and his horn blowing. In the patrol car with him were two men whom he had taken to the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana. After Deputy Richardson bumped the motorcycle with his car, one of its riders either lost or threw off first his helmet and then a piece of cloth appearing to be a mask. He bumped the motorcycle two or three more times and a white object fell down beside the motorcycle. When Richardson's car ran over the white object, money spilled out of it. The men on the motorcycle then threw two objects, which Richardson's passengers testified to be pistols, off to the right of the road and shortly thereafter came to a stop. The entire pursuit covered approximately one and a half miles. The two motorcycle riders, who were Monk and Jiles, were dressed in coveralls and gloves. Jiles was still wearing a red motorcycle helmet with a ski mask underneath. After telling Monk and Jiles that they were under arrest for suspicion of robbing the People's Bank, Deputy Richardson attempted to handcuff them. As Richardson was putting the handcuffs on Jiles, Jiles attempted to break away and a scuffle ensued in which Richardson tore away both sleeves from Jiles' jumpsuit. The motorcycle on which Monk and Jiles had been riding was a green Honda 350 which had tape over the license plate. Richardson's two passengers and other officers who shortly arrived on the scene walked back along the road where the chase took place. They found a .38 revolver and a .22 automatic Luger-style pistol along the side...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Grand Jury Proceedings, In re
...issues decided adversely to them by the Michigan Supreme Court under the guise of a habeas petition. This they cannot do. Monk v. Blackburn, 605 F.2d 837 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 933, 100 S.Ct. 1326, 63 L.Ed.2d 768 1 In any inquiry authorized by this act communications between......
-
Powell v. Rose
...lacks jurisdiction to review the correctness of such decision as to state law made by the Supreme Court of Tennessee, Monk v. Blackburn, 605 F.2d 837, 8391 (5th Cir.1979); Ramsey v. Hand, 309 F.2d 947 (10th Cir.1962), cert. den., 373 U.S. 940, 83 S.Ct. 1547, 10 L.Ed.2d 695 (1963), but, an e......
-
Bronstein v. Wainwright
...of its own laws or rules is no basis for federal habeas corpus relief since no constitutional question is involved. Monk v. Blackburn, 605 F.2d 837 (5th Cir. 1979), Sawyer v. Overton, 595 F.2d 252 (5th Cir. Petitioner notes that two of his co-defendants were granted writs of habeas corpus a......
-
Duckworth v. Owen, Ii
...state criminal trials are matters of state law and therefore questions to be determined solely by state courts. See, e. g., Monk v. Blackburn, 605 F.2d 837 (CA5 1979). The fundamental error of the court below here is that it never squarely addressed the question whether the Indiana rule pro......