Poulson v. Turner

• Decision Date: 19 April 1966
• Docket Number: No. 8563.,8563.
• Citation: 359 F.2d 588
• Parties: Darrell Devere POULSON, Appellant, v. John W. TURNER, Warden, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

359 F.2d 588 (1966)

Darrell Devere POULSON, Appellant, v. John W. TURNER, Warden, Appellee.

No. 8563.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

April 19, 1966.

William G. Fowler, Salt Lake City, Utah, for appellant.

Ronald L. Boyce, Asst. Atty. Gen., Salt Lake City, Utah (Phil L. Hansen, Atty. Gen., Salt Lake City, Utah, with him on the brief), for appellee.

Before PICKETT, HILL and SETH, Circuit Judges.

PICKETT, Circuit Judge.

Darrell Devere Poulson, aged 23 years, was convicted of murder in the first degree in the District Court of Utah, Utah County, and sentenced to death. The conviction was affirmed. State v. Poulson, 14 Utah 2d 213, 381 P.2d 93. Certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States. 375 U.S. 898, 84 S.Ct. 177, 11 L.Ed.2d 126. After exhausting his remedies in the state court — State v. Poulson, 16 Utah 2d 151, 397 P.2d 70, cert. denied 381 U.S. 947, 85 S.Ct. 1795, 14 L.Ed.2d 710, — Poulson instituted this habeas corpus proceeding in the United States District Court for the District of Utah, alleging that he had not been afforded a constitutional trial. The case was submitted to the District Court on the records of the trial and the post-conviction proceedings in the state court. This is an appeal from an order dismissing the habeas corpus petition.

The record shows that on the evening of September 16, 1961, 11-year old Karen Mechling was employed as a baby sitter in the home of a neighbor in the town of American Fork, Utah. The following morning her body was found in some weeds behind that home. The young girl had been raped and beaten to death. Shortly thereafter, Poulson was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada upon another charge, and returned to Provo, Utah, whereupon he advised authorities there that he had committed the Mechling murder and gave details as to how it was accomplished. At the trial, insanity was the sole defense, consequently a detailed description of the sordid crime would serve no useful purpose. As required by Utah statute, U.C.A., 1953, 77-24-17, when the issue of insanity is raised as a defense in a criminal case, the court appointed a panel of three alienists to make an examination of the accused.

The evidence is without conflict that Poulson attended elementary schools in the vicinity of Provo, Utah, where he advanced through the 8th grade, and was described as a below-average student. In 1955, at the approximate age of 16, he was committed to the Utah State Training School¹ at American Fork, Utah, after an attack upon his half-sister. The superintendent and medical director testified that Poulson was considered mentally deficient, but caused no trouble and was one of the most competent children at the school. He was discharged in 1958. At the time of the murder, he was married, living with his wife, and employed. All of the expert witnesses who testified as to Poulson's mental condition thought that he was retarded "to a mild degree." One psychologist testified that in his opinion Poulson was suffering from a mental illness related to feeblemindedness, to the extent that once he "launched on an impulse" he had no means of preventing the completion of the act.

At the trial, two of the appointed psychiatrists testified that their examination of Poulson disclosed no evidence of psychosis and that they were of the opinion that he knew right from wrong, understood the nature and seriousness of his acts, and could control his impulses and emotions. In submitting the case to the jury, the court's instructions defined insanity in language approved by the Supreme Court of Utah.²

At the hearing on the post-conviction proceedings in the state court, all the doctors who had been appointed by the court to examine Poulson were called as witnesses. It developed that one of the doctors, after making his examination, had forwarded his notes concerning that examination, together with his analysis, to the other two doctors, suggesting that such material might be helpful and time-saving to them. All the doctors testified that they were in substantial agreement as to the mental condition of the accused, and the two doctors who had received the notes and analysis of the first were not influenced by them in reaching their conclusions.

At the trial in the state court, Poulson was represented by appointed counsel. Following the conviction, his present counsel was designated to represent him on appeal, and he has continued to act as his attorney in the state court post-conviction action and in these proceedings. Throughout he has been effectively represented by able and conscientious attorneys.

The habeas corpus petition alleges, and it is argued here, that the trial which resulted in Poulson's conviction was so saturated with unfairness as to constitute a lack of due process as contemplated by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. These errors, which are said to offend the canons of decency and fairness, are (1) failure of the court to instruct the jury that it could convict on a lesser offense included in the charge of murder in the first degree;³ (2) failure to instruct the jury that defendant should be acquitted if he was suffering from a mental disease and the slaying was the product of such mental disease; (3) inflammatory argument of one of the prosecutors; and (4) failure of the doctors appointed by the court to reach independent conclusions as to the mental condition of the accused. The appellee Warden contends that the objections raised in the petition are only trial errors of the state court and are not such as to deprive the accused of his constitutional rights. We think the contention is well taken.

This court has frequently said that habeas corpus is available to review state court errors in criminal cases only when they relate to and deprive an accused of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Latham v. Crouse, 10 Cir., 320 F.2d 120, cert. denied 375 U.S. 959, 84 S.Ct. 449, 11 L.Ed.2d 317. In Hickock v. Crouse, 10 Cir., 334 F.2d 95, 100, cert. denied 379 U.S. 982, 85 S.Ct. 689, 13 L.Ed.2d 572, reh. denied 380 U.S. 928, 85 S.Ct. 908, 13 L.Ed.2d 817, we said:

"While the power of a federal court in a habeas corpus proceeding is great indeed, the narrow limits of its jurisdiction within which that power may be exercised when reviewing a state court conviction cannot be too strongly emphasized. The function of the great writ in such instances `* * * is to test by way of an original civil proceeding, independent of the normal channels of review of criminal judgments, the very gravest allegations. State prisoners are entitled to relief on federal habeas corpus only upon proving that their detention violates the fundamental liberties of the person, safeguarded against state action by the Federal Constitution.\' Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 311-312, 83 S.Ct. 745, 756, 9 L.Ed.2d 770. See, also, Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837."

Under our system, the administration of criminal justice is generally committed to the several states. Constitutional provisions are restrictions only upon the...