United States v. LaVallee

• Decision Date: 09 April 1963
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 9263.
• Citation: 216 F. Supp. 137
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America ex rel. Carl DeFLUMER, Jr., Petitioner, v. J. Edwin LaVALLEE, Warden of Clinton Prison, Dannemora, New York, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

216 F. Supp. 137

UNITED STATES of America ex rel. Carl DeFLUMER, Jr., Petitioner, v. J. Edwin LaVALLEE, Warden of Clinton Prison, Dannemora, New York, Respondent.

Civ. No. 9263.

United States District Court N. D. New York.

April 9, 1963.

L. Robert Leisner, Buffalo, N. Y., for petitioner.

Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., State of New York, Albany, N. Y., for respondent; Joseph R. Castellani, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel.

BRENNAN, Chief Judge.

The above named state court prisoner, through the medium of a petition and notice of motion, seeks the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus to make inquiry into the legality of his present detention. The respondent has submitted an affidavit in opposition to the requested relief and the petitioner has filed his affidavit in reply thereto. Upon the return day of the motion, the petitioner, through counsel, submitted a transcript of the proceedings had in the state court at the time of his plea and sentence. Briefs have been filed and the matter is before the court for decision.

The petition, in the factual background disclosed therein and in the underlying contentions, differs from the deluge of applications submitted by state court prisoners which are launched "on the poorly charted and apparently limitless seas of postconviction review". Smith v. Settle, D.C., 212 F.Supp. 622. Although the decision herein turns upon the question of the exhaustion of state court remedies, brief reference to the facts and contentions will be made as a background for the decision. In referring to such facts and contentions, it is emphasized that this court in no way passes upon the fundamental fairness of the procedure used in the matter of petitioner's detention and interrogation or the constitutional validity of the subsequent actions taken. It is recognized that the documents before the court raise issues of fact as to such procedure which may ultimately require factual determination.

The petitioner is now confined in a state penal institution by reason of his plea of guilty to the crime of murder in the second degree, entered in the County Court of Albany County on June 30, 1947. He was thereafter sentenced on July 7, 1947 to be confined for from twenty years to life and is detained under the resulting commitment. No appeal was taken from the judgment and no application has been made to the state courts for relief.

The above plea and sentence arise out of a well publicized occurrence of March 15, 1947 when the body of a nine year old boy was found hanging from a tree in a wooded area near Albany, New York. In the evening of the same day, the petitioner, who was then fourteen years of age but had reached the age of fifteen at the time of the entry of the plea, was taken from his home in the custody of two detectives and was thereafter questioned as to the above mentioned occurrence. Within a comparatively short time, the petitioner admitted that he was the cause of the victim's death. His statement concerning the occurrence was later reduced to writing and is termed as a "confession" in the submitted documents before the court. Petitioner's indictment for the crime of murder in the first degree followed.

Upon petitioner's arraignment, counsel was assigned. A plea of "not guilty" was entered. It is evident that a thorough investigation was conducted by assigned counsel. The petitioner at that time may be termed "normal" as to his physical and mental capabilities. He had received a first year high school education and a psychiatric examination indicated an understanding of his act. No contention is made as to any failure on the part of assigned counsel to protect the rights of his client. In fact, the minutes of the entry of the plea and the imposition of sentence disclose that counsel who, by reputation known to this court, was mature, experienced and eminently qualified, had explored all avenues available to him in attempting to formulate a defense in behalf of his client.

The crux of the petition, as contained in the allegations of the complaint, is to the effect that petitioner's confession was coerced and that the resultant plea was induced thereby. There is no allegation of coercion in the sense that term is ordinarily used. There is no claim of brutality or threat. The submitted documents show that the petitioner himself admitted that he had been treated fairly and that the statement obtained was given of his own free will. Assigned counsel's statement at the time of the imposition of sentence, set out below, is indicative of his conclusion that the confession was not the product of coercion or overreaching as those terms were understood and applied at the time. The statement in part is set out below.

"* * * The confession, I must say in due deference to the District Attorney, was not based on any ground that I could attack it; not lacking in voluntary character, nor obtained as a result of holding out the promise or hope of reward, or the mitigation of punishment."

Underlying the allegations of coercion found in the petition is the contention that the conviction here violates the present concept of due process in that a standard of adult responsibility was applied to this then youthful petitioner. Reliance is based upon decisions of the Supreme Court made subsequent to the conviction here which appear to hold that the protection of constitutional safeguards cannot be applied to youthful offenders "by the more exacting standards of maturity". Haley v. Ohio, 332 U.S. 596 at 599, 68 S.Ct. 302 at 304, 92 L.Ed. 224; Gallegos v. Colorado, 370 U.S. 49, 82 S.Ct. 1209, 8 L.Ed.2d 325. Petitioner's assigned counsel was conscious of the problem as shown by his statement at the time of sentence but he apparently felt that the law afforded no avenue of relief at...