State v. Karston

• Decision Date: 18 October 1955
• Docket Number: No. 48663,48663
• Citation: 247 Iowa 32,72 N.W.2d 463
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. William G. KARSTON, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 463

72 N.W.2d 463

247 Iowa 32

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. William G. KARSTON, Appellant.

No. 48663.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Oct. 18, 1955.

George E. Flagg, Des Moines, for appellant.

Dayton Countryman, Atty. Gen., Raphael R. R. Dvorak, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Richard H. Wright, County Atty., Bloomfield, for appellee.

THOMPSON, Justice.

The appellant-defendant, William G. Karston, shot and killed Wendell W. Jones on July 25, 1954. The victim was a substantial and highly respected farmer living in Davis County, and the killing occurred at his home during the course of a robbery of Mr. Jones and his wife perpetrated by the appellant and his half-brother, Almer M. Anderson. The two fled in Mr. Jones' automobile, but were shortly after apprehended in Illinois, were returned to Davis County and there jointly charged with the crime of murder by county attorney's information. The record shows these facts without dispute; the robbery and killing were admitted by both defendants, by written confessions and by testimony in open court upon hearing to determine the degree of guilt and the penalty to be imposed. The crime which deprived Wendell W. Jones of his life was wanton, brutal and entirely without justification so far as appears from the record before us. The actual shooting was admittedly done by Karston, the appellant, while his codefendant and accomplice was in another room of the Jones home engaged in robbing Laura E. Jones, the wife of the deceased. Karston was twenty-nine years of age at the time, Anderson twenty-two. Karston had served a felony sentence for armed robbery in Minnesota, and voluntarily admitted and testified to a long series of burglaries and armed robberies in many states. He also admitted that he was the instigator and leader in inducing his codefendant to accompany him upon the crime-filled weekend of which the murder of Wendell Jones was the culminating event.

I. When the defendants were first brought into court on July 29, 1954, it appeared they had no counsel or means of employing counsel. The court appointed Russell Swartz, an attorney of Ottumwa, Iowa, to represent them. The record shows Mr. Swartz has had long experience in handling criminal matters, and the trial court believed his skill and experience fitted him to serve the defendants' interests to the best advantage. He came to Bloomfield, the county seat of Davis County, on the early afternoon of July 29th, and after consultation with the defendants appeared in court with them for arraignment. Upon arraignment each defendant pleaded guilty to the offense charged. The court thereupon fixed August 3, 1954, at 10 a. m., as the time of hearing to determine the degree of murder, as provided by section 690.4, Code of Iowa 1954, I.C.A. At this hearing, which began on August 3rd and was concluded on August 4th, a considerable amount of evidence was taken. There was no dispute in the essential facts, which were fully testified to by the defendants and in particular by the appellant here, as well as by the state's witnesses. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court announced it found the defendants guilty of murder in the first degree, and fixed the next day, August 5th, as the time for sentence. Both defendants waived further extension of time and agreed that sentence might be pronounced on the date fixed.

On August 5th, both defendants appearing in person and with their court-appointed counsel, the court heard arguments as to the sentence to be imposed. It is of the greatest importance here to note that the Iowa law applicable, section 690.5 of the Code of 1954, I.C.A., fixes only two possible punishments upon a conviction of murder of the first degree, whether by jury verdict or plea of guilty and finding of that degree by the court. The sentence must be either death or life imprisonment. The jury must fix one or the other if it finds a verdict upon trial; the court must do so if it has before it a plea of guilty and determines the murder is of the first degree.

The court having given defendants' counsel the privilege of being heard upon the question of the sentence, Mr. Swartz made a frank and generally able plea for the degree of leniency permitted the court within the limits of the statute, for each defendant. He was compelled to recognize, however, that there was some difference in the ages, past records, leadership in the criminal forays indulged in, and the actual responsibility for the shooting, of the two men. Inadvertently, perhaps, and under the compulsion of the situation in which he found himself, he said to the court: 'Now then, I realize that both of them are guilty of first degree murder. I do think, however, there is a difference as to what the penalty should be.' (Italics supplied.)

No matter how ruthlessly he may have disregarded the rights of others, no matter how callously he may have deprived innocent citizens of their lives or property without notice or the slightest opportunity for defense, the wrongdoer, when brought to book in a court of justice, is always quick to insist upon his own rights, to the last technicality; and it is the settled and just policy of our law to give them to him. The more serious the offense of which he is accused, the more carefully will the safeguards of the law be thrown around him. It will not do in any case to say that the accused is plainly guilty of an atrocious murder and so the means used to convict is justified by the end to be attained.

II. The only complaints of the appellant which we find necessary to consider are those pertaining to the appointment of counsel and the latter's efforts in his behalf. The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides that 'In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right * * * to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.' Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution of the State of Iowa, I.C.A., contains substantially similar language. It is appellant's contention here that he did not have effective representation by counsel, in part at least because the same attorney was appointed to represent both defendants and their interests were to some extent adverse. Thus, appellant says that he was deprived of his right to a trial by due process of law, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and of Section 9 of Article I of the Iowa Constitution, I.C.A.

It should be noted that the state courts are bound by the federal courts' interpretation of the law on this point, at least where capital offenses are concerned. Bute v. People of State of Illinois, 333 U.S. 640, 674, 68 S.Ct. 763, 780, 92 L.Ed. 986; Uveges v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 335 U.S. 437, 440, 441, 69 S.Ct. 184, 185, 186, 93 L.Ed. 127; Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 70, 71, 62 S.Ct. 457, 464, 465, 86 L.Ed. 680; Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 53 S.Ct. 55, 77 L.Ed. 158, 84 A.L.R. 527. It is the definite holding of the Supreme Court of the United States that a failure of a state court to make an effective appointment of counsel may in all cases where the defendant is charged with a serious offense, and certainly does in capital cases, so offend the basic requirements of a fair hearing as to amount to a denial of due process of law contrary to the terms of the Fourteenth Amendment.

We turn then to the question whether the defendant-appellant had effective representation. We refer again to the italicized quotation from counsel's address to the court set out in Division I above. Under...