Powell v. Sacks
| Decision Date | 15 June 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 14747.,14747. |
| Parties | Denver POWELL, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Beryle C. SACKS, Warden, Ohio State Penitentiary, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
William Allen Ogden (Court Appointed), Cincinnati, Ohio, for petitioner-appellant.
John J. Connors, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Columbus, Ohio, Mark McElroy, Atty. Gen., Columbus, Ohio, on brief, for respondent-appellee.
Before MILLER, Chief Judge, and McALLISTER and O'SULLIVAN, Circuit Judges.
The present appeal involves the following background of proceedings which it is necessary to have in mind in order to properly consider the unusual question now presented to us.
Petitioner was tried and convicted of murder in the state court of Ohio on March 22, 1957. His motion for a new trial was overruled and on April 2, 1957, he received a sentence of life imprisonment. The Court of Appeals of Ohio, 148 N.E.2d 230, affirmed the judgment of the trial court. The Supreme Court of Ohio denied his motion to certify the record. On April 20, 1959, the Supreme Court of the United States denied his petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of Ohio without prejudice to an application for a writ of habeas corpus in the appropriate United States District Court. Powell v. Ohio, 359 U.S. 964, 79 S.Ct. 882, 3 L.Ed.2d 843.
On September 3, 1959, petitioner, proceeding in forma pauperis with leave of Court, filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, in which he contended that the judgment under which he was imprisoned in the Ohio State Penitentiary was null and void, in that in the state court trial petitioner was denied due process of law in violation of his constitutional rights. His application alleged that following his arrest he was held incommunicado for an excessive length of time without a warrant, that he was beaten, threatened with death, starved and interrogated excessively for approximately seventy-two hours by relay teams of police officers without being able to contact family or counsel, and that he was, through coercion, brutality and forceful means, through enticements and promises, forced into submitting a confession, which was improperly received in evidence at the trial.
Following a hearing on October 9, 1959, at which petitioner was present in person, the District Judge on March 9, 1960, ruled that the trial court properly submitted the question of the voluntariness of petitioner's confession to the jury, that the jury's resolution of conflicting testimony could not be reviewed by habeas corpus proceedings, that the Court, having carefully considered the files and records of the case and the transcript of petitioner's trial, found the undisputed facts were insufficient to establish that petitioner's confession was involuntary, that the petitioner had failed to sustain the pertinent allegations of his petition, and that there had been no violation of the federal constitutional guarantees. The petition was denied.
Petitioner did not file an appeal within the statutory period provided therefor, but on or about October 20, 1960, wrote to the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, alleging his ignorance of legal procedure and reliance upon the erroneous advice of a "jailhouse lawyer" as an excuse for his failure to file a timely appeal, and requesting that the letter be treated as an informal motion for leave to appeal. The letter was treated as an informal motion, which was denied by order of November 7, 1960. Powell v. State of Ohio, 284 F.2d 522, C.A.6.
On March 13, 1961, petitioner asked leave in the District Court to file in forma pauperis a motion to re-date and re-enter the order of the District Court of March 9, 1960, denying the application for the writ, in order to enable him to take a delayed appeal therefrom. The motion stated that on or about March 16, 1960, and within the time prescribed by law for the filing of a notice of appeal, petitioner wrote to the District Court requesting that his letter be treated as a motion to appeal, that said letter was handed to mail officials of the Ohio Penitentiary for mailing and that apparently such letter was mislaid or lost in the process of censorship or handling or that the Court failed to recognize such letter for its true significance in that he did not hear from the Court. He asked that he not be penalized or prohibited from taking an appeal, in that he had done everything he could possibly do in trying to take an appeal and that he was unable to control the institutional mail matters. The District Judge denied the motion to proceed in forma pauperis, from which ruling the petitioner sought an appeal. On May 17, 1961, this...
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Sanders v. United States
...Heflin v. United States, 358 U.S. 415, 420, 79 S.Ct. 451, 454, 3 L.Ed.2d 407 (opinion of Mr. Justice Stewart) (dictum); Powell v. Sacks, 303 F.2d 808 (C.A.6th Cir., 1962). Indeed, only the other day we remarked upon 'the familiar principle that res judicata is inapplicable in habeas proceed......
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Biggers v. Neil, 20540.
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Powell v. Maxwell, 16023.
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