Rutledge v. Sunderland, 78-1976

• Decision Date: 16 February 1982
• Docket Number: No. 78-1976,78-1976
• Citation: 671 F.2d 377
• Parties: Gary Michael RUTLEDGE, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Jerry SUNDERLAND, Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 377

671 F.2d 377

Gary Michael RUTLEDGE, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Jerry SUNDERLAND, Respondent-Appellant.

No. 78-1976.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

Submitted July 22, 1980.

Decided Feb. 16, 1982.

Thomas A. Williams, Oklahoma City, Okl., for petitioner-appellee.

John Fischer, II, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Okl., Oklahoma City, Okl. (Jan Eric Cartwright, Atty. Gen. of Okl., Oklahoma City, Okl., was also on the brief), for respondent-appellant.

Before HOLLOWAY, McWILLIAMS and McKAY, Circuit Judges.

HOLLOWAY, Circuit Judge.

After examining the briefs and the appellate record, this three-judge panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not be of material assistance in the determination of this appeal. See Fed.R.App.P 34(a); Tenth Cir.R. 10(e). The cause is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.

Respondent appeals the grant, following remand, of a writ of habeas corpus to the petitioner Rutledge. This case was previously before us as one of those consolidated in Bromley v. Crisp, 561 F.2d 1351, 1358-1360 (10th Cir. 1977) (en banc), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 908, 98 S.Ct. 1458, 55 L.Ed.2d 499, which dealt with various problems following our decisions in Lamb v. Brown, 456 F.2d 18 (10th Cir.) and Radcliff v. Anderson, 509 F.2d 1093 (10th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 939, 95 S.Ct. 1667, 44 L.Ed.2d 95. ¹ More recently we applied these principles again in Crisp v. Mayabb, 660 F.2d 465 (10th Cir. 1981).

I

We discussed the relevant facts of petitioner Rutledge's case at some length in Bromley. 561 F.2d at 1358-59. For present purposes they may be summarized as follows:

In January 1971, Rutledge, then 17 and represented by counsel, pleaded guilty to two counts of grand larceny. He was prosecuted as an adult without certification for such treatment, under the Oklahoma procedure which we held invalid under the Equal Protection Clause. See n.1, supra. In 1974 a jury convicted him ² of unlawful delivery of LSD after former conviction of a felony and he received a sentence of 10 years' imprisonment, the minimum allowable for such a recidivist conviction. The larceny convictions were used to impeach his credibility during the determination of guilt on the unlawful delivery charge and were also relied on for enhancement of his punishment as a recidivist during the trial's second stage. ³ The recidivist conviction was affirmed on direct appeal. Rutledge v. State, 527 P.2d 1373 (Okl.Cr.).

Rutledge unsuccessfully sought post-conviction relief in the State district court, claiming violation of the Equal Protection Clause in the use of the prior invalid convictions to support the later one. He then asserted his constitutional claims in this federal habeas action, where relief was denied by the district court.

On appeal, we rejected the State's claim that Rutledge's 1971 guilty pleas waived earlier defects. We held that since petitioner's constitutional claims had been presented to and ruled on by the State courts, the federal habeas court should have considered these claims on their merits, despite the guilty pleas. However, having concluded that the writs in the Bromley cases should not be granted summarily, 561 F.2d at 1356-57, we remanded Rutledge's cause for determination of whether or not certification in the 1971 proceedings would have occurred and thus whether petitioner's equal protection rights were in fact actually violated, and for proper disposition of the habeas petition thereafter. See Bromley, supra, 561 F.2d at 1356 n.6.

On remand, the federal district court entered an order withholding judgment for ninety days to permit the State courts to make such a determination with respect to the 1971 convictions. When this period expired without the State courts' having done so the district court, after a motion by Rutledge was made, set the case for non-jury trial. At the hearing, the parties announced ready; the court proceeded to take evidence; but the State also announced "that the District Attorney of Beckham County has elected not to introduce evidence on the issue before the Court." (I R. 123). Accordingly, the district court found that the writ should issue.

In its order the district court vacated the 1973 conviction "for the reason that the convictions relied upon herein for enhancement of punishment, ... (the 1971 convictions) ..., are void upon denial of plaintiff's due process of law rights under the United States Constitution," and that the case be remanded "for new trial or other proceedings" not inconsistent with the order or with our opinion in the first appeal. (I R. 123-24). The respondent appeals.

II

On this appeal the respondent first argues that because of the discharge of Rutledge from custody in October 1978, the issue of whether it was proper to use the earlier convictions to enhance the punishment on the 1974 conviction is moot; that Rutledge fully satisfied the judgment and sentence; and that there can be no collateral consequence to keep the claim of unlawful enhancement of punishment alive from the fact of past punishment alone.

We must disagree. The parties agree that before entry of the instant habeas judgment on October 27, 1978, Rutledge had been discharged from custody under the 1974 conviction and sentence on October 7, 1978. The Supreme Court has clearly held that "under the statutory scheme, once the federal jurisdiction has attached in the District Court, it is not defeated by the release of the petitioner prior to completion of proceedings on such application." Carafas v. LaVallee, 391 U.S. 234, 238, 88 S.Ct. 1556, 1559, 20 L.Ed.2d 554. The Court pointed to the remaining consequences of an invalid conviction and to the power granted to dispose of the matter "as law and justice require." 28 U.S.C. § 2243; Carafas, supra, 391 U.S. at 237, 239, 88 S.Ct. at 1559, 1560. Thus the instant 1974 conviction's invalidity is not a moot question. See Carafas, 391 U.S. at 237, 88 S.Ct. at 1559; Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 108 n.3, 98 S.Ct. 330, 332 n.3, 54 L.Ed.2d 331; Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 486 n.7, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 1834 n.7, 36 L.Ed.2d 439; Baldwin v. Benson, 584 F.2d 953, 959-60 (10th Cir.); Cindle v. Page, 452 F.2d 752, 754 (10th Cir.) (per curiam).

III

The respondent further argues that it was improper for the district judge on remand to set aside Rutledge's 1974 conviction even though the 1971 convictions were invalid; that there is no precedent for voiding the 1974 conviction where the prior convictions were used only to enhance punishment and not in the determination of guilt; that the prior convictions could not have been used had Rutledge not testified and they "were first introduced by defense counsel on direct examination of Rutledge"; that "(s)uch conduct waives any possible error resulting from the use of these invalid convictions during the substantive part" of the trial; and that Rutledge "cannot complain about a tactical decision made by defense counsel even if it later proves to have been prejudicial." (Brief of the Appellant at 4).

We must disagree. First, it does not appear from the record either that the prior convictions were initially introduced in the 1974 trial by defense counsel on direct examination of the defendant, or that they were used only to enhance punishment under the Oklahoma recidivist statute, as the State contends. They were admitted as bearing on Rutledge's credibility and thus clearly were a factor before the jury in the determination of guilt for the 1974 conviction now in question. The State's argument thus seems to be that because Rutledge elected to testify in defending himself from a determination of guilt at his 1974 trial, he somehow waived any objection to the use of the invalid 1971 larceny convictions to impeach his credibility-an argument we must reject.

The transcript of the trial reflects that defendant took the stand as his own primary witness and, in addition to giving some general background information about himself, testified that he was not present at a meeting on January 23 or 24, 1973, at which the charged drug violation was alleged to have occurred. (II R.25 at 57-63). On cross-examination the State inquired into Rutledge's schooling and its completion which occurred in one of the State's prisons in Granite, Oklahoma. (II R.25 at 64-5). Defense counsel objected and asked for a mistrial, stating essentially his understanding with the State that the prior convictions were not to have been gone into during phase one of the trial (the determination whether defendant was guilty of the LSD charge, prior to the determination on former convictions and possible enhancement of punishment). (II R.25 at 65-67). ⁴ The objection was overruled; a brief cautionary instruction was given; ⁵ and the State continued to inquire about defendant's two prior convictions and his confinement, repeatedly using the word "penitentiary." (II R.25 at 70-72).

On redirect examination defense counsel did then inquire into the existence and nature of the prior convictions, defendant's imprisonment, his subsequent record, and his own rehabilitative efforts. (II R.25 at 73-78). On recross, the State inquired about defendant's rehabilitative efforts, the length of his prison term, and the value of the property involved in the prior larceny convictions. (II R.25 at 78-79). And the court then instructed as to the procedures and ages at which young men and women could have been tried as juveniles or adults in Oklahoma in 1971. (II R.25 at 80). ⁶

It is clear that the State first sought to introduce the factor of the prior convictions; that it was not defense counsel who first raised the issue; and that despite Rutledge's attempts to ameliorate the introduction of these convictions by discussing the circumstances surrounding and succeeding them, the evidence came in only after Rutledge's plain objections to it. Therefore we reject the State's arguments that use of the invalid convictions...