Peyton v. Williams

• Decision Date: 29 November 1965
• Parties: C. C. PEYTON, Superintendent, etc. v. Alphonso Russell WILLIAMS.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

Page 147

145 S.E.2d 147

206 Va. 595

C. C. PEYTON, Superintendent, etc. v. Alphonso Russell WILLIAMS.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Nov. 29, 1965.

Reno S. Harp, III, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Robert Y. Button, Atty. Gen., on brief), for plaintiff in error.

Hilary H. Jones, Jr., Norfolk, for defendant in error.

Before EGGLESTON, C. J., and SPRATLEY, BUCHANAN, SNEAD, I'ANSON, CARRICO, and GORDON, JJ.

SPRATLEY, Justice.

On January 3, 1964, Alphonso Russell Williams, sometimes hereinafter referred to as petitioner, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus against C. C. Peyton, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary, hereinafter referred to as respondent, in the Hustings Court of the City of Richmond. The petitioner alleged that he was being unlawfully detained by Peyton by virtue of sentences imposed upon him in the Corporation Court of the City of Norfolk, Part Two, in August, 1956. He attacked each of those sentences as invalid and void on the ground that, as an infant, he had been denied due process of law and the equal protection of the law, in the prior proceedings in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of the City of Norfolk, by its failure to comply with the provisions of §§ 16-172.32 to 16-172.42 of the Code of 1950, as amended. He also alleged lack of effective aid of counsel and other errors in the trials in Corporation Court of the City of Norfolk, Part Two.

The Hustings Court of the City of Richmond issued the writ, returnable to Corporation Court of the City of Norfolk, Part Two. Code 1950, § 8-598. The respondent answered and asserted that petitioner was being presently detained pursuant to a judgment rendered in the Corporation Court of the City of Norfolk, Part Two, on February 15, 1963, whereby he was sentenced to serve 6 years in the penitentiary; that he was not detained pursuant to the 1956 judgments of which he complained; and that since the writ prayed for did not attack the validity of petitioner's present detention, prayed that the writ be denied and the petition be dismissed.

The case came on to be heard on April 22 and 23, 1964, on the pleadings, so much of the records as could be found pertaining to petitioner's trials and hearings in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in 1956, the records of the Corporation Court of the City of Norfolk, Part Two, and of the State Penitentiary, relating to Williams, and the testimony of witnesses.

The evidence showed the following:

Williams, a child under 17 years of age, was arrested on May 30, 1956, and charged with four separate offenses of robbery. He was taken before the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of the City of Norfolk on May 31, 1956, for a hearing. On June 21, 1956, the four charges were certified by the above court to 'Corporation Court, Part One,' for further criminal proceedings. [There is no court of that designation in the City of Norfolk.]

On July 2, 1956, four indictments were returned against Williams by the grand jury of the Corporation Court of the City of Norfolk, Part Two: three for robbery and one for attempted robbery. Counsel was appointed to represent the accused, an indigent. On July 9, 1956, Williams, in his own proper person, pleaded guilty to each of the four indictments, waived a jury, and by agreement was tried on all four indictments at the same time. He was found guilty on each, and imposition of sentence was postponed until a later date.

On August 10, 1956, the Corporation Court of the City of Norfolk, Part Two, imposed the three following sentences on Williams: on one indictment for robbery, 8 years in the penitentiary; on another indictment for robbery, 8 years in the penitentiary; and on a third indictment for attempted robbery, 3 years in the penitentiary. The two latter sentences were ordered to run concurrently with the first 8-year sentence.

On August 14, 1956, the court, on the fourth indictment, sentenced Williams to 8 years in the penitentiary, 4 years of that sentence being suspended.

Williams was committed to, and received in, the State Penitentiary, assigned Prison No. 70042, and his total sentence computed to be 12 years. His term was reduced on January 16, 1959, to 11 years and 10 months, and on February 15, 1960, to 11 years and 8 months.

On July 20, 1960, Williams was paroled from the penitentiary by order of the Virginia State Parole Board. Virginia Code, 1950, § 53-238.

On February 15, 1963, Williams, while on parole, was convicted of a separate and unrelated crime of robbery, and sentenced to a term of 6 years in the penitentiary. He was received in the penitentiary on March 8, 1963, and given Prison No. 82939. That sentence would have normally expired on August 6, 1966, had he not escaped from the penitentiary, and also received a sentence as a second offender.

On March 21, 1963, 13 days after he had been received in the penitentiary for the sentence imposed on him on February 15, 1963, Williams' parole from the sentences imposed on him in 1956 was revoked by the Parole Board. At that time, he had 5 years, 6 months and 13 days of his 1956 sentences left to serve.

On April 23, 1963, Williams was sentenced, as a second offender, to serve 1 year in the penitentiary, 6 months being suspended. On December 18, 1963, he was sentenced to a term of 1 year for escape. He thereby lost 3 months and 5 days of good time he had formerly earned. As the result, according to the computation of respondent, his confinement in the penitentiary will not expire until January 25, 1972.

Petitioner and several witnesses testified that at the hearing before the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in 1956, he did not have counsel; that his parents were not summoned to appear, and were not present; and that no guardian ad litem was appointed for him.

In a written opinion, the trial judge found that petitioner was then presently detained pursuant to the sentences imposed on him in 1956; that the judgments imposing said sentences in 1956 were 'illegal and void' due to the failure of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to comply with the provisions of § 16-172.32, now § 16.1-166; § 16-172.33, now § 16.1-167; § 16-172.35, now § 16.1-169; § 16-172.39, now § 16.1-173; § 16-172.42, now § 16.1-176 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, citing Tilton v. Commonwealth, 196 Va. 774, 85 S.E.2d 368. (Cf. Lowe v. Grasty, 203 Va. 168, 122 S.E.2d 867); that consequently, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court and the Corporation Court of the City of Norfolk, Part Two, were without jurisdiction to try or sentence the petitioner on the 1956 charges. On June 5, 1964, judgment was entered ordering that respondent 'do forthwith release petitioner from the aforesaid confinement, unless he has other valid sentences to serve and remand him to the custody of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of the City of Norfolk.'

Respondent duly objected to the finding of the court that petitioner was detained pursuant to invalid sentences imposed in 1956; in allowing the procedures of the Juvenile and Demestic Relations Court to be attacked; and in overruling his motion to deny the writ.

Petitioner has, at no time, attacked the validity of the judgment of conviction rendered on February 15, 1963, or the sentence of 6 years thereby imposed upon him. He has confined himself solely to the attack upon the 1956 judgments and sentences. It will be observed that the judgment in this proceeding does not authorize the immediate discharge of petitioner from custody.

S. J. Melton, Director of the Bureau of Records, Virginia State Penitentiary, testified that his duties, in part, were to receive all court orders and commitments of prisoners to the penitentiary; to supervise computation of the time of their sentences; and to maintain complete prison records of their confinement until released. He said he prepared the prison record of Williams, No. 82939, in accordance with standard administrative practice and interpretation of the laws relating to the time of service of prisoners. He explained that petitioner was received in the penitentiary on March 8, 1963, as a new prisoner, on a new sentence, pursuant to his conviction on February 15, 1963; that Williams was then given a new number, 'because he committed a new felony and received a new sentence.' He had no notice or knowledge prior to March i2, 1963, that the Parole Board had revoked the parole granted Williams in 1960. Further, he said that, 'As far as we were concerned at the penitentiary, since he (Williams) had been previously paroled, he did not have this sentence [1956 sentences] to serve until the Board acted to revoke his parole. Our procedure is that a man cannot serve a sentence left from parole until the Board actually revokes it, because, actually, he doesn't have it when it is rerevoked.'

Williams was, and had been for 13 days, in the custody of respondent at the time his parole was revoked. On March 21, 1963, under the standard administrative procedure of the penitentiary, he was being detained pursuant to his February 15, 1963, sentence. Upon the completion of that sentence, Melton said, 'he will then pick up' the unserved portion of his 1956 sentence.

The Virginia Parole Board is authorized by § 53-238, Code of 1950, (1) to adopt rules governing the granting of parole and the investigation, conduct and supervision of persons placed upon parole; (2) to release on parole, subject to its rules, for such time and upon such terms...