Puckett v. State of North Carolina
| Decision Date | 05 March 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 9537.,9537. |
| Citation | 343 F.2d 452 |
| Parties | David Hampton PUCKETT, Appellant, v. STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Irvin B. Tucker, Jr., Raleigh, N. C. (court-assigned counsel), for appellant.
Andrew A. Vanore, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen. of North Carolina (Thomas Wade Bruton, Atty. Gen. of North Carolina, and Theodore C. Brown, Jr., Staff Atty., Raleigh, N. C., on brief), for appellee.
Before BOREMAN and BRYAN, Circuit Judges, and HUTCHESON, District Judge.
Habeas corpus was unsuccessfully sought in the District Court by David Hampton Puckett for release from imprisonment by North Carolina upon his conviction for armed robbery. He alleged in his application that he had been denied Federal constitutional due process at trial, in that: the indictment was too vague to inform him of the accusation; he was without the effective assistance of counsel; and, unable to pay for an attorney or the cost of appeal, he was not advised of his right to have the State provide counsel and the requisite transcript. The last ground we think entitles him to substantial relief.
After sentence, Puckett requested an appeal. His lawyer strongly advised against it, expressing the opinion that the appeal could not succeed. Nevertheless, on Puckett's insistence the appeal was noted. Execution was stayed for 60 days by the Court, the appeal bond set and bail named. Petitioner avers he could not avail himself of any of these concessions because of his poverty. The appeal was dismissed for lack of prosecution.
The lapse of time between the conviction, June 1957, and the application to the District Court, October 1963, certainly discloses a want of vigilance by the petitioner. However, his tardiness is mitigated in part by the fact that he was serving a previous sentence until June 6, 1960. Then, too, some of the interval was occupied in pursuing State remedies.
Yet, if he was in truth too impoverished to meet the expense of appeal, Puckett was not accorded his full Constitutional rights, for indisputably a person of adequate means could in the same circumstances have obtained a review under the laws of North Carolina. At the time he was convicted, 1957, the United States Supreme Court had declared his Constitutional right to a free transcript. Griffin v. People of State of Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956). Of this he should have been advised by his counsel. Whil...
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Donnell v. Swenson
...Cir. 1965), 343 F.2d 433, in a case involving the criminal appellate procedure of the State of Virginia, and in Puckett v. State of North Carolina (4th Cir. 1965), 343 F.2d 452, involving the appellate criminal procedure of the State of North Carolina. The Tenth Circuit made similar retrosp......
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Langford v. State of Alabama, 27006.
...of the Second, Fourth and Ninth Circuits. United States ex rel. Maselli v. Reincke, supra; Wilson v. Rose, supra; Puckett v. North Carolina, 343 F.2d 452 (4 Cir. 1965). These decisions would allow Langford, although represented by retained counsel at his trial, to raise an ineffective assis......
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