Tarrant v. Ponte
| Decision Date | 15 May 1984 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 83-908-C. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
| Parties | John TARRANT, Petitioner, v. Joseph PONTE, et al, Respondents. |
Robert L. Sheketoff, Zalkind & Sheketoff, Boston, Mass., for petitioner.
Linda G. Katz, Asst. Atty. Gen., Boston, Mass., for Francis X. Bellotti and Ponte.
This matter came before the Court on the report and recommendation of Magistrate Cohen relating to John Tarrant's petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The Magistrate recommends that the petition be denied. Petitioner has filed an objection to the Magistrate's report and recommendation.
Petitioner was convicted in July 1977 after a jury trial in Suffolk County Superior Court on one indictment for assault in a dwelling, one indictment for unlawful confinement, and two indictments for armed robbery. On each of the indictments for armed robbery and on the indictment for assault in a dwelling, petitioner was ordered to serve ten to fifteen years in prison; on the indictment for unlawful confinement, he was ordered to serve five to ten years in prison. All sentences were to be served concurrently at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Walpole. The Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the convictions, Commonwealth v. Tarrant, 14 Mass.App. 1020, 442 N.E.2d 31 (1982), and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied further appellate review.
Petitioner filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with this Court on April 6, 1983. He alleged that his conviction violated the Constitution on three grounds: first, that the trial judge improperly denied petitioner's motion for a six-day continuance prior to trial; second, that the trial judge improperly denied petitioner's motion for a competency examination and hearing before trial; third, that his conviction on two indictments for armed robbery violated the Double Jeopardy Clause.
On Friday, July 8, 1977, the trial court called petitioner's case for trial. At that time, counsel for petitioner requested that the trial court continue the proceedings until the following Thursday. The court refused, but granted a three-day continuance until Monday, July 11. Petitioner contends that the trial court's refusal to grant the requested continuance denied him the effective assistance of counsel, a fair trial, and due process of law.
The Magistrate concluded that the trial court's failure to order the requested continuance did not warrant the issuance of the writ because petitioner failed to allege that denial of the continuance had resulted in actual prejudice to him. "Indeed," the Magistrate notes, "at the hearing before this Court on the petition counsel for petitioner candidly conceded that petitioner could make no showing of actual prejudice." Petitioner does not challenge the Magistrate's recommendation.
A court will not presume that prejudice resulted "merely from a showing of shortness of preparation time." United States v. Ritch, 583 F.2d 1179, 1183 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 970, 99 S.Ct. 463, 58 L.Ed.2d 430 (1978). Rather, the petitioner bears the burden of alleging and establishing actual prejudice. Id.; see also Lockett v. Blackburn, 571 F.2d 309, 314 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 873, 99 S.Ct. 207, 58 L.Ed.2d 186 (1978).
Petitioner does not allege that denial of his motion for continuance prejudiced his defense in any way. Petitioner's counsel had represented him since the date of his arraignment, and the trial court granted him an additional three days to prepare his defense to the specific charges about to be tried. Petitioner's counsel cross-examined both witnesses called by the state, and moved to suppress the testimony of a police officer concerning the victim's positive identification of petitioner from police photographs. Moreover, petitioner does not allege that he was prejudiced in any way in presenting his own witnesses or tangible evidence at trial, though he chose, in fact, not to present any such evidence. Because petitioner has failed to allege or demonstrate actual prejudice resulting from the trial court's denial of his motion for continuance, I rule that his petition should be denied to the extent it attacks his conviction on this ground.
On the morning of trial, petitioner's counsel moved the trial court to order a psychiatric examination to determine whether petitioner was competent to stand trial.1 The trial court denied the motion. Petitioner claims that denial of the motion deprived him of due process and a fair trial.
Conviction of an accused person while he is legally incompetent violates due process. Bishop v. United States, 350 U.S. 961, 76 S.Ct. 440, 100 L.Ed. 835 (1956). A court must conduct an inquiry into defendant's mental capacity if the evidence before it raises a bona fide doubt as to the defendant's competency. Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375, 86 S.Ct. 836, 15 L.Ed.2d 815 (1966). Where a trial court has refused to order further procedures to determine whether the defendant is competent to stand trial, a reviewing court must ask "whether, in light of what was ... known prior to trial and thereafter, the failure to make further inquiry into petitioner's competence to stand trial, denied him a fair trial." Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 174-75, 95 S.Ct. 896, 905, 43 L.Ed.2d 103 (1975).
The determination whether a defendant is competent to stand trial requires the trial court to consider a number of factors. As the Supreme Court has stated:
The import of our decision in Pate v. Robinson is that evidence of a defendant's irrational behavior, his demeanor at trial, and any prior medical opinion on competence to stand trial are all relevant in determining whether further inquiry is required .... There are, of course, no fixed or immutable signs which invariably indicate the need for further inquiry to determine fitness to proceed; the question is often a difficult one in which a wide range of manifestations and subtle nuances are implicated.
Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. at 180, 95 S.Ct. at 908.
The record in this case shows that petitioner displayed virtually no symptoms of mental incompetence prior to or during trial. The only evidence bearing on petitioner's competence presented to the court prior to trial was a statement by petitioner's counsel. The full text of defense counsel's colloquy with the court is set out in the margin.2
Counsel told the trial court that he had met with petitioner at Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Walpole, on the previous night. He told the court that petitioner did not "relate to the reality of this situation" in a number of ways. He claimed, first, that petitioner had made "outrageous" statements during their meeting. He cited specifically defendant's statement that he believed that his arrest had been "set up" by the victim's boyfriend who was a police officer. However, many highly rational persons will engage in such speculation when faced with criminal prosecution, and evidence of such speculation is not, without more, sufficient to raise a bona fide suspicion that defendant was not competent to stand trial.
Second, counsel doubted petitioner's competency because petitioner was willing to go to trial rather than plea bargain, even though he would receive a relatively light sentence if he would plead. A defendant's decision, however, to exercise his constitutional right to proceed to trial, even against great odds, does not raise a presumption of incompetency. Finally, counsel noted that "some of petitioner's questions were quite rational and others were completely divorced from reality." So general an observation, even from defense counsel, is not sufficient as a matter of law to create a bona fide doubt as to petitioner's mental capacity.
There is no evidence in the record that petitioner engaged in any irrational behavior at trial or has engaged in any such behavior since that time. Moreover, petitioner's counsel reported to the trial judge that he was not aware that petitioner had experienced any prior mental illness.
I rule that the evidence presented to the trial court and to this Court, taken as a whole, is insufficient to raise a bona fide doubt as to petitioner's capacity to stand trial, and that the trial court did not deprive petitioner of due process or a fair trial by refusing to order a psychiatric examination.
Finally, petitioner alleges that his conviction on two counts of armed robbery violated his constitutional right not to be placed in jeopardy twice for the same crime.
The uncontradicted testimony of the victim shows petitioner's activities were as follows: On October 19, 1976, as the victim was leaving her apartment building at 10:20 p.m., she was accosted by a person she identified as the petitioner. The petitioner told her to go back into the building. She and the petitioner entered the small entry-foyer just inside the front door to the building. Petitioner held the victim at knifepoint and told her to give him her money. The victim opened her purse and "dumped into his hand" thirteen dollars contained in the purse. The victim testified that she was at that time "very, very shaky and in fear of my life and very terrified."
Petitioner then instructed the victim to take him to her apartment. The victim led petitioner to her second-floor apartment, still at knife-point, and opened the door with her key. When both the petitioner and she were inside the apartment, petitioner locked the door behind them. In the apartment, petitioner examined many of the victim's personal belongings and instructed her to bring some of her other belongings to him. The victim testified that at that time she was "starting to get very, very nervous."
Petitioner instructed the victim to go into the bathroom, he closed the door behind her, and he tied the door closed...
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