United States ex rel. Diblin v. Follette

• Decision Date: 16 December 1968
• Docket Number: No. 68-C-520.,68-C-520.
• Citation: 294 F. Supp. 841
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America ex rel. George DIBLIN, Petitioner, v. Harold W. FOLLETTE, Warden of Green Haven State Prison, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

294 F. Supp. 841

UNITED STATES of America ex rel. George DIBLIN, Petitioner, v. Harold W. FOLLETTE, Warden of Green Haven State Prison, Respondent.

No. 68-C-520.

United States District Court E. D. New York.

December 16, 1968.

John DeWitt Gregory, New York City, for petitioner, Alfred Lawrence Toombs, New York City, of counsel.

Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., of the State of New York, New York City, for respondent, Brenda Soloff, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

WEINSTEIN, District Judge.

In this habeas corpus proceeding petitioner alleges that a 1942 conviction was obtained by a coerced confession. Previously in this Court he alleged that in a variety of ways he was denied his right to appeal that conviction.

Despite years of consideration by more than a score of trial and appellate judges, we are almost as far as we ever were from an answer to the mixed question of fact and law posed by petitioner: were his constitutional rights violated by the state's use of a coerced confession or by denial of the right to appeal? While the law's response in this twenty-five year old case may never be satisfactory because of the lapse of time, petitioner is entitled to an opportunity to prove his claim. An omnibus evidentiary hearing in this Court is ordered to try the merits of all claims — whether or not previously raised — respecting the constitutionality of the 1942 conviction.

Since there is neither a central filing system nor a single state legal office representing New York in post-conviction proceedings, we cannot be certain of the number of applications arising out of petitioner's 1942 conviction. So far as we have been able to determine with the aid of the New York Attorney General, present and former counsel of petitioner, and our own examination of the records of this and other courts, there have already been nine independent applications to trial courts — three in the federal courts — and eight appellate decisions. There has been an evidentiary hearing on one aspect of the right to appeal allegations and none on the merits of the coerced confession claim.

The known applications are listed below:

                       Date         Court         Claim                   Disposition
                  1.  March,    Clinton County   denial of           dismissed at petitioner's
                      1944      (court unclear)  right to            request (petitioner
                                                 appeal              was released on
                                                                     probation in May
                                                                     1945)
                  2.  November  County Court     sentenced           denied without hearing
                      3, 1960   (Queens)         in absence          affirmed by Appellate
                                                 of counsel          Division, People
                                                                     v. Diblin, 13 A.D
                                                                     2d 700, 215 N.Y.S.2d
                                                                     739 (2d Dep't 1961)
                                                                     leave to appeal to
                                                                     Court of Appeals denied
                                                                     certiorari denied,
                                                                     369 U.S. 803, 82
                                                                     S.Ct. 643, 7 L.Ed.2d
                                                                     551 (1962)
                  3.  March     U. S. District   coerced confession  denied for failure to
                      28, 1962  Court,           and                 exhaust state remedies;
                                N.D.N.Y.         sentenced           certificate of
                                                 in absence          probable cause denied
                                                 of counsel          by Court of Appeals;
                                                                     certiorari denied, Diblin
                                                                     v. La Vallee, 372
                                                                     U.S. 980, 83 S.Ct.
                                                                     1116, 10 L.Ed.2d 145
                                                                     (1963)
                  4.  May       Supreme Court    coerced             application denied
                      27, 1965  (Queens)         confession          after hearing solely
                                                                     on question whether
                                                                     issue of voluntariness
                                                                     raised at petitioner's
                                                                     trial; affirmed by
                                                                     Appellate Division,
                                                                     People v. Diblin, 27 A.
                                                                     D.2d 989, 281 N.Y.S.
                                                                     2d 981 (2d Dep't
                                                                     1967); leave to appeal
                                                                     to Court of Appeals
                                                                     denied
                
                

                     Date          Court             Claim                   Disposition
                  5.  November     Supreme Court     sentenced              application denied
                      15, 1966     (Queens)          in absence             without prejudice because
                                                     of                     coram nobis not
                                                     counsel                proper remedy and
                                                                            because of hearing
                                                                            scheduled to be held
                                                                            shortly on related
                                                                            claim (see (6) below);
                                                                            notice of appeal
                                                                            filed on Feb. 27, 1967
                  6.  January       Supreme Court     denial of             application denied
                      27, 1967      (Queens)          right to              after hearing; aff'd,
                                                      appeal by             30 A.D.2d 1052, 295
                                                      being held            N.Y.S.2d 411 (2d
                                                      incommunicado         Dep't 1968); leave to
                                                                            appeal to Court of
                                                                            Appeals denied.
                  7.  July         Supreme Court      failure of            denied without hearing
                      12, 1967     (Queens)           trial court           on ground that
                                                      to inform             trial court is under no
                                                      petitioner            such duty if petitioner
                                                      of right to           had retained counsel
                                                      appeal
                  8.  January      U. S. District     denial of             denied for failure to
                      3, 1968      Court,             right to              exhaust state remedies
                                   E.D.N.Y.           appeal by             (see (6) above;
                                                      bad advice            appeal then pending);
                                                      and by                certificate of probable
                                                      being held            cause denied An
                                                      incommunicado         earlier letter from the
                                                                            petitioner to the clerk
                                                                            of this Court, dated
                                                                            January 7, 1966, making
                                                                            similar claims and
                                                                            requesting forms was,
                                                                            under the then practice,
                                                                            not treated as an
                                                                            application for a writ
                                                                            of habeas corpus.
                  9.  June         U. S. District    coerced                present application
                      6, 1968      Court,            confession
                                   E.D.N.Y.
                

Petitioner is presently incarcerated in Green Haven State Prison, serving a term of eighteen to twenty years. He was sentenced on June 24, 1959, as a second felony offender by the Court of General Sessions, New York County, after pleading guilty to a charge of incest. See United States ex rel. Diblin v. Follette, 268 F.Supp. 674 (S.D.N.Y. 1967). He seeks to invalidate a 1942 conviction for sodomy after a jury trial in County Court, Queens County, which formed the basis for the sentence he is now serving. See United States ex rel. Durocher v. LaVallee, 330 F.2d 303 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 377 U.S. 958, 84 S.Ct. 1921, 12 L.Ed.2d 1048 (1964) (person sentenced as second offender may seek to invalidate first conviction).

At the 1942 trial petitioner was represented by counsel. No appeal was taken. The alleged infringement of constitutional rights raised in the present application involves a confession which purportedly was "obtained * * * by intimidation, coercement, inducement, and brutal physical force."

There is no transcript of the 1942 trial. Nevertheless, some idea of the evidence introduced may be obtained from the transcript of the grand jury proceedings and the trial clerk's minutes. From the former it appears almost certain that a full confession, in one or more written versions, was available. The latter indicates that petitioner's alleged young victim, the police officer who confronted petitioner with the victim, and a number of other witnesses testified on the prosecution's direct case; that p...