Siers v. Ryan

• Decision Date: 20 September 1985
• Docket Number: No. 84-1521,84-1521
• Citation: 773 F.2d 37
• Parties: SIERS, Charles E., Appellant, v. RYAN, Joseph M. and the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 37

773 F.2d 37

SIERS, Charles E., Appellant, v. RYAN, Joseph M. and the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania.

No. 84-1521.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued June 10, 1985.

Decided Sept. 20, 1985.

Mary McNeill Zell (argued), Philadelphia, Pa., for appellant.

Ann C. Lebowitz (argued), Asst. Dist. Atty., Jane Cutler Greenspan, Chief, Superior Court Appeals, Gaele McLaughlin Barthold, Chief, Prosecution Appeals, Eric B. Henson, Deputy Dist. Atty. for Law, Edward G. Rendell, Dist. Atty., Philadelphia County, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellee.

Before HIGGINBOTHAM and BECKER, Circuit Judges, and COHILL, District Judge. ^*

OPINION OF THE COURT

A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Jr., Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from the dismissal of a pro se habeas corpus petition for failure to allege facts which, if proved, would establish a constitutional violation as required by 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254(a) (1982). ¹ For the reasons that follow, we will affirm the judgment of the district court.

I.

Petitioner-appellant, Charles E. Siers ("Siers") was arrested and charged with the commission of three bank robberies and, following a preliminary hearing, was bound over for trial in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. Siers did not go to trial but instead pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery and was sentenced to serve concurrent terms of six to twenty years incarceration. Subsequently, Siers moved to withdraw his guilty plea. Appendix ("App.") at 46a-52a. He alleged that he pleaded guilty as a result of, inter alia, ineffective assistance of counsel because there was no continuity of counsel assigned by the Defender Association of Philadelphia to represent him. He further alleged psychological duress which he attributed to having been warned by the Public Defender that the Commonwealth demanded a jury trial, that the judges assigned to criminal jury trials were "tough" sentencers, and that therefore if he would plead guilty, he would get a more lenient sentence.

The Court of Common Pleas conducted an evidentiary hearing and denied Siers' motion to withdraw his guilty plea. App. at 53a-143a, 144a-168a. Siers' sentence was later affirmed by the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, Commonwealth v. Siers, 318 Pa.Super. 215, 464 A.2d 1307 (1983), after which Siers filed a petition for allowance of appeal to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denied allocatur. App. at 166a.

Siers then submitted this pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. App. at 167a-172a. Siers asserted that his confinement was unconstitutional because of the method used by the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas to assign cases, the lack of continuity in representation by the Public Defenders Association, confiscation of property, and the Commonwealth's "illegal" demand for a jury trial. App. at 170a, 171a. The district court dismissed the petition because it failed "to allege facts which, if proved, would render petitioner's confinement unconstitutional." App. at 177a. This appeal followed.

Siers presents the following three issues for our consideration:

(1) whether Siers should have been permitted to withdraw his guilty plea on the theory that it was entered because the method of assigning cases in Philadelphia had "chilled his right to trial before a jury of his peers"; ²

(2) whether Siers was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance (3) whether the district court erred in dismissing his petition without a hearing on the ground that it failed to allege a constitutional violation.

of counsel and equal protection under the law by the manner in which the Public Defenders handled his case; and

II.

Siers pleaded guilty to a February 22, 1978 robbery at a Beneficial Bank branch, and to March 3 and March 10 robberies of two different Girard Bank branches. In each of the crimes, the robber handed the bank teller a threatening hold-up note and a brown paper bag. The note instructed the tellers to place their large bills in the paper bag. The note also contained a thinly veiled threat warning the tellers that they were being watched and that they should not attempt to sound their alarms. Despite this threat, one of the tellers at one bank, Eileen Blohm, successfully activated a camera which photographed Siers during the March 3 incident.

This photograph, which was later marked and introduced into evidence at guilty plea proceedings, was enlarged and placed on a police wanted poster. Siers was arrested inside a restaurant at 1:00 a.m. on March 11, 1978 when the arresting officer, Lt. James Gallagher, recognized him from this police poster. Each of the three bank tellers positively identified Siers at a counseled post-arrest line-up on the morning of his arrest, and again at the preliminary hearing on April 18, 1978. The first teller, Heidi Lagansky, unequivocally identified Siers as the man who robbed her station at Beneficial Bank on February 2, 1978. On cross-examination, Ms. Lagansky testified that defendant stood at her window for three to four minutes during the robbery. The other two tellers, Eileen Blohm and Elizabeth Foell, also identified Siers without any hesitation. Blohm and Foell estimated that Siers stood at their respective Girard Bank windows for at least five minutes during the incidents of March 3 and March 10. Based on the preliminary hearing testimony of these witnesses, Siers was held for trial on three counts each of robbery, theft, possession of an instrument of crime and terroristic threats.

Faced with this evidence, and the possibility of a substantial prison sentence if convicted on these charges, ³ Siers and his counsel gave consideration to a means to minimize his sentence through a "non-trial disposition." On May 12, 1978, Siers' case was listed in the calendar room before Judge Samuel Smith. Judge Smith granted Siers' request for continuance and the court docket specifically notes "possible non-trial disposition." At the next calendar listing on May 18, 1978, Siers, after conferring with counsel, decided to plead guilty provided the case could be listed before a favorable judge. The case was then sent to Judge Klein, whom Siers believed to have a reputation for leniency.

On July 28, 1978, Siers, a thirty-six year old high school graduate, pleaded guilty before Judge Klein. Siers evinced an understanding of his rights, satisfaction with the lawyer, and a desire to plead guilty of his own volition, before accepting Siers' guilty plea to three counts of robbery and one count of possession of narcotic contraband, Judge Klein conducted a comprehensive on-the-record colloquy. The prosecutor then established a factual basis for the plea, and Siers admitted the accuracy of these facts. Siers was specifically advised of the possible consequences of his plea, and the rights he was giving up by nature of its entry. Judge Klein accepted Siers' guilty plea and imposed a sentence of six to twenty years.

Dissatisfied with this sentence, Siers, through his trial counsel, the Defender Association, filed a written petition to withdraw his plea on October 5, 1978.

New counsel was subsequently appointed, and an evidentiary hearing was scheduled before Judge Klein on December 7, 1978. Prior to the evidentiary hearing, new counsel filed an amended petition alleging, inter alia, that Siers' guilty plea was induced by the "psychological duress" of the Philadelphia method of case assignment. Siers testified at the evidentiary hearing that he agreed to plead guilty because Judge Klein was purportedly a lenient judge, and because he did not want to risk being "warehoused" by a tough judge, such as Judge (now Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice) McDermott. Despite his previous assurances of voluntariness, Siers testified at the evidentiary hearing that he had not been "pleased" with the plea proceedings, and that he had wished instead to have separate jury trials on each of the robbery counts. Siers' post sentencing preference for jury trials in these cases was based on his belief that "anything can happen with the jury."

Assistant Public Defender, Richard DiMaio, was called as a defense witness. DiMaio, who was Assistant Chief of the Defender's Major Trial division, testified that he represented Siers before calendar Judge Smith on May 18, 1978. DiMaio stated that he reviewed the case before talking to Siers, that he knew the Commonwealth's evidence was overwhelming because he had access to the police report and wanted poster photograph, and that he assured his client that the Defender would do everything necessary to fight the case in court, but there was a great chance of conviction on these charges, and if convicted, Siers faced a potential prison sentence in excess of twenty years. DiMaio testified that he feared such a heavy sentence following conviction in a jury trial not only because of the personalities and sentencing matters of particular judges, but also because of the nature and strength of the Commonwealth's case as well as Siers' own criminal record. For these reasons, DiMaio told Siers that in his best professional judgment the best defense strategy was minimization of sentence by means of a guilty plea before a favorable judge. Siers, by his own admission at the plea colloquy, made the independent decision to follow his counsel's advice and enter a guilty plea. Siers' petition to withdraw his pleas was denied by Judge Klein on November 28, 1979. Siers appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which denied relief, finding that the plea was not coerced. ⁴

III.

Siers first argues that he should have been permitted to withdraw his guilty plea because it was not the product of a voluntary and intelligent choice. In essence Siers contends that guilty plea was coerced by the combination of two factors: the assignment system in the Philadelphia courts and the Commonwealth's...