Rice v. Coiner, Civ. A. No. C-72-162-E.

• Decision Date: 11 January 1973
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. C-72-162-E.
• Citation: 352 F. Supp. 1235
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of West Virginia
• Parties: Robert Lyle RICE, Petitioner, v. Ira M. COINER, Warden of the West Virginia State Penitentiary, Respondent.

352 F. Supp. 1235

Robert Lyle RICE, Petitioner, v. Ira M. COINER, Warden of the West Virginia State Penitentiary, Respondent.

Civ. A. No. C-72-162-E.

United States District Court, N. D. West Virginia.

January 11, 1973.

Chauncey M. Browning, Jr., Atty. Gen. of W. Va., Charleston, W. Va., for respondent.

MAXWELL, Chief Judge.

Petitioner in the above styled civil action is presently incarcerated in the West Virginia State Penitentiary at Moundsville, West Virginia, serving a life sentence imposed by the Circuit Court of Mineral County, West Virginia, on February 7, 1966, following his conviction, by a jury, on a charge of murder.

In accordance with the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 2241 et seq., Petitioner has filed for federal habeas corpus relief in this Court. Exhaustion of state remedies has apparently been accomplished. Petitioner earlier filed an application for habeas corpus relief with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on the grounds herein asserted.

Petitioner alleges six grounds for relief. In ground three he contends that the arresting officers entered his residence without first securing a search warrant. However from the facts given to support this claim it is clear that Petitioner is actually alleging that the arresting officers lacked an arrest warrant. This ground was previously considered by this Court, Civil Action File No. 71-80-E, and need not be reconsidered. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(a).

In ground five Petitioner alleges that he was denied due process and equal protection of the law at his trial by reason of the prosecuting attorney's statement, during closing argument, that "if any mercy be shown, its by the 1965 Legislature, that the death penalty was abolished." (Transcript of Petitioner's trial, p. 290, incorporated into this action from Rice v. Coiner, 297 F.Supp. 1017 (N.D.W.Va.1969)).

This Court does not feel that the statement when considered with the totality of the trial amounted to a constitutional deprivation. "Only where irregularities in the state trial court become so flagrant as to impair fundamental fairness do they become proper allegations to set forth on federal habeas corpus." 297 F.Supp. at 1022. See also Grundler v. North Carolina, 283 F.2d 798 (4th Cir. 1960); United States ex rel. Brown v. Russell, 455 F.2d 464 (3d Cir. 1972). It is not the task of a federal court to sit as an additional state appellate court and review all errors allegedly committed during a trial. Only those errors which go to the core of the proceedings and taint its fundamental fairness are cognizable in federal habeas corpus. Here, as the trial transcript indicates, there was overwhelming evidence of Petitioner's guilt and the statements made by the prosecuting attorney in no way deprived Petitioner of a basic constitutional right.

Petitioner's first, second, fourth and sixth grounds essentially allege that there was not sufficient evidence to sustain his conviction and that irrelevant testimony was introduced at his trial. However, in lieu of passing on the merits of these contentions, the Court feels that these contentions are best disposed of by dismissal for abuse of the writ. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b).

Petitioner, as indicated earlier in this order, previously filed two petitions for habeas corpus relief with this Court and in regard to one petition he was granted an evidentiary hearing. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) gives this Court authority to dismiss a petition raising new grounds not presented in an earlier application unless the Court is "satisfied that the applicant has not on the earlier application deliberately withheld the newly asserted ground or otherwise abused the writ." It should be noted that the above section places the justification for the denial of an evidentiary hearing and the petition within the sound discretion of the trial judge.

The...