United States v. Sigler

• Decision Date: 08 October 1964
• Docket Number: Misc. No. 550.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America ex rel. Clifton Alton PORET and Edgar Labat, Petitioners, v. Maurice SIGLER, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

234 F. Supp. 171

UNITED STATES of America ex rel. Clifton Alton PORET and Edgar Labat, Petitioners, v. Maurice SIGLER, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Respondent.

Misc. No. 550.

United States District Court E. D. Louisiana, Baton Rouge Division.

October 8, 1964.

G. Wray Gill, Gerard H. Schreiber, New Orleans, La., for relator Clifton Alton Poret.

Benjamin E. Smith, Smith, Waltzer, Jones & Peebles, New Orleans, La., for relator Edgar Labat. Edward Bennett Williams, Williams, Wadden & Stein, Washington, D. C., of counsel.

Jack P. F. Gremillion, Atty. Gen. of Louisiana, John E. Jackson, Jr., Michael E. Culligan, Asst. Attys. Gen. of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, La., for respondent.

WEST, District Judge.

This matter is once more before the Court on the application of petitioners, Clifton Alton Poret and Edgar Labat, for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus. Closely rivaling the now famous Chessman case for duration, this case seems to have no ending. The apparent inability of the State to completely administer its criminal laws, from arrest to punishment, is caused by the almost limitless post-conviction remedies made available to defendants by Federal law in its zeal to protect persons charged with crime from being denied their constitutional rights during the pre-trial and trial proceedings. While no one would seriously question the necessity and wisdom of taking all reasonable precautions to assure an accused defendant the protection of his constitutional rights, nevertheless, it makes a travesty of justice when the tail is allowed to wag the dog in the process. Even capital cases, involving charges and convictions for rape and murder, should, within a reasonable time, be concluded. This case has been allowed to linger in the courts for fourteen long years while piecemeal hearings have been held with various courts hearing and re-hearing petitioners' claims, over and over again. These petitioners have not only had their day in court; they have had years in court. Every aspect of this case has been litigated and re-litigated and the claims and contentions of petitioners have consistently been rejected by both State and Federal Courts of competent jurisdiction.

Petitioners were charged with having committed rape on a woman in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 12, 1950. In the early hours of the morning of November 12, 1950, while the prosecuting witness and her escort were walking along a New Orleans street, they were assaulted by the two defendants. Mr. Penedo, the lady's escort, was robbed at gun point, and his lady companion, the prosecuting witness, was raped by the defendants after having her clothes completely torn from her body. Defendant, Labat, was arrested shortly afterwards, but Poret, who fled, and thus became a fugitive from justice, was not found until almost two years later when he was located in a Tennessee penitentiary, serving time under a Tennessee conviction for another crime. After all pre-trial motions and other proceedings were exhausted, the defendants were tried by a jury, convicted, and on May 23, 1953, the death sentence was imposed pursuant to Louisiana law. During the trial, a total of thirty-four bills of exception were reserved on behalf of the defendants, and appeals were subsequently perfected based upon these exceptions. One bill of exception was directed at an allegation that members of defendants' race (Negro) had been systematically excluded from the grand jury which had indicted these defendants. The Supreme Court of Louisiana heard the appeals, and on July 2, 1954, after a thorough and exhaustive review of and inquiry into all thirty-four alleged errors, affirmed the convictions and sentences. State of Louisiana v. Labat and Poret, 226 La. 201, 75 So.2d 333. Rehearing was denied by the Louisiana Supreme Court on October 5, 1954. Applications for writs of certiorari were applied for and the United States Supreme Court granted the writs, 348 U.S. 950, 75 S.Ct. 444, 99 L.Ed. 742 (1955), and after hearing the case, affirmed the convictions and sentences. Michel v. State of Louisiana (Poret and Labat v. State of Louisiana), 350 U.S. 91, 76 S.Ct. 158, 100 L.Ed. 83 (1955), rehearing denied, 350 U.S. 955, 76 S.Ct. 340, 100 L.Ed. 831 (1956). Of the many alleged errors presented, the only question then considered by the United States Supreme Court to be serious was the question raised concerning the composition of the grand jury which had indicted petitioners. The United States Supreme Court finally rejected petitioners' plea on the ground that they, petitioners, had failed to timely object to the composition of the jury as required by State law even though they had ample opportunity to have done so.

Thereafter, on September 18, 1957, petitioners filed an application for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus in this Court, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, based upon an allegation that they had been convicted on coerced and fraudulently obtained evidence. This application was rejected on September 19, 1957, for the reason that petitioners had not exhausted available State remedies in that this contention had never been presented to any Court of the State of Louisiana, and that thus, this Court was without jurisdiction. A further stay of execution was then granted by the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to allow petitioners time to exhaust available State remedies. Application for habeas corpus was then made by petitioners to the State Court, and on September 25, 1957, the Louisiana Supreme Court denied the writ of habeas corpus, and on the same day, denied a writ of error Coram Nobis. Despite the fact that petitioners claim that they had been convicted on coerced testimony had been thoroughly reviewed and rejected by the highest court of the State of Louisiana, and despite the fact that the United States Supreme Court refused to review that decision, it, the United States Supreme Court, did, on November 18, 1957, remand the case to this Court for consideration of petitioners' previously filed application for habeas corpus, which application was based upon the very same contention that had been rejected by the Louisiana Supreme Court, and whose decision the United States Supreme Court had refused to review. Pursuant to this remand, this Court, Honorable J. Skelley Wright presiding, brought this matter on for hearing on February 6, 1958. Not only were petitioners heard on the question of coerced testimony, but they were, for all practical purposes, completely tried anew. Some twenty-five witnesses were heard and after a thorough analysis of the testimony, Judge Wright denied petitioners' application for habeas corpus. Labat v. Sigler, D.C., 162 F.Supp. 574. Motions for a new trial and for rehearing were denied, and an appeal lodged with the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, which Court, in Labat v. Sigler, 267 F.2d 307 (CA5 1959), affirmed the holding of this Court. Petitioners then applied to the United States Supreme Court for writs of certiorari, United States ex rel. Poret v. Sigler, 361 U.S. 375, 80 S.Ct. 404, 4 L.Ed.2d 380, which writs were granted, and the case again remanded to this Court "for disposition of the question whether members of petitioners' race were deliberately and intentionally limited, and excluded in selection of petit jury panels, in violation of the Federal Constitution." Following the order of remand, several pre-trial conferences were held and various new motions filed, heard, and disposed of, and finally on March 31, 1964, this matter came on for another full evidentiary hearing on the question presented to this Court by the United States Supreme Court, i. e., whether or not petitioners' constitutional rights have been violated by a systematic exclusion or a systematic token inclusion of members of the Negro race from the petit jury which tried these petitioners. Following this latest hearing before this Court, during which six witnesses were heard, and several depositions and exhibits received in evidence, all counsel were granted additional time to file further documentary evidence and briefs. Now, after a thorough review of this evidence, it is the opinion of this Court that petitioners' application for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus must once again be denied.

First of all, when the United States Supreme Court in 1955 refused to set aside the convictions and sentences based upon petitioners' contentions that the grand jury which had indicted them was improperly constituted, it based its judgment on the fact that under Louisiana law, LSA-R.S. 15:202, all objections to the manner of selecting or drawing any juror or jury, or to any defect or irregularity that could be pleaded against any array or venire must be filed, pleaded, heard, or urged before the expiration of the third judicial day of the term for which said jury shall have been drawn, or before entering upon the trial of the case if it be begun sooner and that if such objections are not made, all such objections shall be considered as waived. No such objection was made by petitioners to either the composition of the grand jury or the petit jury within the time allowed by Louisiana law. In the course of its opinion, the United States Supreme Court said:

"It is beyond question that under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment Louisiana may attach reasonable time limitations to the assertion of federal constitutional rights. * * * `No procedural principle is more familiar to this Court than that a constitutional right may be forfeited in criminal as well as civil cases by the failure to make timely assertion of the right.' * * * Poret's case affords a perfect illustration of the necessity for prompt determination of claims such as he raises here. Five years have now elapsed since the crime was committed, and the delay has been largely caused by Poret's own actions. Even if available, and memory

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