Wallace v. McDonald

• Decision Date: 27 February 1973
• Docket Number: No. 72-C-898.,72-C-898.
• Citation: 369 F. Supp. 180
• Parties: Donald WALLACE et al., etc., Plaintiffs, v. Miles F. McDONALD et al., etc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

369 F. Supp. 180

Donald WALLACE et al., etc., Plaintiffs, v. Miles F. McDONALD et al., etc., Defendants.

No. 72-C-898.

United States District Court, E. D. New York.

February 27, 1973.

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Daniel Alterman, Stephen M. Latimer, James Reif, Robert L. Boehm, William M. Kunstler, David Scribner, New York City, Alvin J. Bronstein, Washington, D. C., for plaintiffs.

Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., of N. Y., by Samuel A. Hirshowitz, First Asst. Atty. Gen., and Irving Galt, Joel Lewittes, Hillel Hoffman, Asst. Attys. Gen., Norman Redlich, Corp. Counsel, City of N. Y., by Victor P. Muskin, Asst. Corp. Counsel, New York City, for defendants.

JUDD, District Judge.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

In this civil rights action by state detainees, the court reserved decision on plaintiffs' motion to declare it a class action and defendants' motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter and failure to state a claim. F.R.Civ.P. 12(b). Defendants' motion was directed to the first amended complaint, but has been treated as applicable also to the second amended complaint, which is similar in nature.

The action was instituted by indigent state detainees, arrested or indicted for felonies and incarcerated in the Brooklyn House of Detention for Men, an institution of the New York City Department of Correction, on behalf of all those who are or will be so incarcerated. The defendants include substantially all the Supreme Court Justices in Kings County and the Administrative Judge, the District Attorney, the Commissioner of Correction, the Chief Probation Officer, the Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court, and the Chief Clerk of the Criminal Term of the Supreme Court. The allegations of the complaint are set up as eight separate causes of action and assert:

1. That the Legal Aid Society is assigned to represent indigents in approximately 90 percent of the cases, with the result that it has such a staggering case-load that it cannot adequately investigate, prepare, or try the cases, listing 17 particulars in which assigned counsel have failed to give effective assistance.

2. That the constitutional right to a speedy trial is denied by delays in presenting cases to the grand jury, bringing cases to trial, and preparing presentence reports which take from three to four months to complete.

3. That bail is denied where no imposition of money conditions is reasonably necessary.

4. That lengthy pretrial incarceration causes unnecessary loss of employment, financial hardship, and anguish to inmates and their familes.

5. That the right of access to the courts is hampered by the refusal to consider pro se motions, which the Clerk sends to the same assigned counsel whose inadequate representation led to the necessity for making pro se motions, instead of placing them on the calendar for consideration by a judge.

6. That taking prisoners from jail to courthouse pens without producing them before the judge and failing to produce them in court when ordered creates further delays.

7. That plaintiffs are coerced to plead guilty and lose their constitutional right to a jury trial because of the delays and hardships imposed by the other practices described in the complaint.

8. That there is discrimination against indigent defendants because the practices described result in their being treated more harshly than those who can afford private counsel.

Plaintiffs allege that there have been more than 25,000 felony indictments in Kings County in less than four years, that the class they represent consists of more than 1,000 members and is too numerous to join all potential plaintiffs, that the case involves common questions of law and fact which the named plaintiffs can adequately present, and that the defendants have acted on grounds generally applicable to the class.

Discussion

The facts stated in the complaint are of a nature which would generally be appropriate to consider in an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1343. Section 1983 states:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.

As stated in this court's Memorandum and Order dated February 15, 1973, directing a hearing on portions of the motion for a preliminary injunction, jurisdiction in civil rights actions extends to any "usage" involving state action which defeats federal rights. Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 162-170, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1611-1614, 26 L. Ed.2d 142 (1970). The complaint alleges a number of general practices and usages which affect various rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

1. The requirement that counsel be provided for indigent defendants, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963), must mean that indigents should be supplied with effective counsel. Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967); Brubaker v. Dickson, 310 F.2d 30, 32 (9th Cir. 1962).

2. The right to a speedy trial, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, is a federal right applicable to the states. Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972).

3. Freedom from excessive bail is guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment. Stack v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1, 72 S. Ct. 1, 96 L.Ed. 3 (1951). The Supreme Court has intimated that the Eighth Amendment bail provision is applicable to the states through the Fourteenth, although it has not been required specifically so to hold. Schilb v. Kuebel, 404 U.S. 357, 365, 92 S.Ct. 479, 484, 30 L. Ed.2d 502 (1972).

4. The fourth cause of action may be no more than an elaboration of the third cause of action, but it is not necessary that each so-called cause of action stand on its own feet. The court may consider all relevant portions of the complaint, hear evidence pro and con, and decide to what extent any allegations have been sustained, and then consider the nature of any appropriate relief.

5. Refusal to consider pro se motions, especially when combined with the alleged assignment of ineffective counsel, may be an obstruction of the right of access to the courts. Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483, 485, 89 S.Ct. 747, 749, 21 L.Ed.2d 718 (1968); White v. Ragen, 324 U.S. 760, 762, n.1, 65 S.Ct. 978, 979, 89 L.Ed. 1348 (1945); Ex parte Hull, 312 U.S. 546, 61 S.Ct. 640, 85 L.Ed. 1034 (1941).

6. Taking prisoners to the courthouse unnecessarily may not in itself be a violation of any federal rights under the principles of Sostre v. McGinnis, 442 F.2d 178 (1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 1049, 92 S.Ct. 719, 30 L. Ed.2d 740; 405 U.S. 978, 92 S.Ct. 1190, 31 L.Ed.2d 254 (1972). Likewise, failure to produce defendants in court when ordered may not violate any federal rights, since there is no clear allegation that the defendant justices took any significant steps in any trial without the presence of a defendant. However, where part of the complaint alleges pervasive delays in bringing defendants to trial, the allegation of irregularities in the transportation of inmates to the courthouse should not be considered in vacuo and the claim is not dismissible on the face of the complaint.

7. Coerced guilty pleas are invalid. Machibroda v. United States, 368 U.S. 487, 493, 82 S.Ct. 510, 513, 7 L.Ed. 2d 473 (1962). As the Supreme Court said in United States v. Jackson, 390 U. S. 570, 583, 88 S.Ct. 1209, 1217, 20 L. Ed.2d 138 (1968),

A procedure need not be inherently coercive in order that it be held to impose an impermissible burden upon the assertion of a constitutional right.

Defendants' assertion that inquiry into the alleged coercion of guilty pleas is barred by McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L. Ed.2d 763 (1970), is mistaken. McMann and the companion cases of Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970), and Parker v. North Carolina, 397 U.S. 790, 90 S.Ct. 1458, 25 L.Ed.2d 785 (1970), were concerned with collateral attacks on guilty pleas and resulted in a constriction of the scope of inquiry into a guilty plea. The challenge made by plaintiffs here does not seek to set aside individual guilty pleas but rather asks for prospective relief against a system which is alleged to be inherently coercive. In this respect the claim is similar to that made in United States v. Jackson, supra, 390 U.S. 570, 88 S.Ct. 1209, in which the Supreme Court held part of the Federal Kidnapping Act unconstitutional because it permitted imposition of the death penalty only upon a jury's recommendation and thereby made the risk of death the price of trial.

8. The right of indigent criminal defendants to be free of discrimination because of their indigency has been long recognized. Mayer v. City of Chicago, 404 U.S. 189, 92 S.Ct. 410, 30 L. Ed.2d 372 (1972); Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956).

Defendants' Arguments

In a civil rights action there is no duty to exhaust state remedies. Wilwording v. Swenson, 404 U.S. 249, 92 S. Ct. 407, 30 L.Ed.2d 418 (1972); Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 183, 81 S.Ct. 473, 482, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961).

Whether the allegations of the complaint can ultimately be proved is not important for the purpose of defendants' motions. Nor is it necessary to decide at this time whether abstention may ultimately be a proper exercise of discretion. See Railroad Commission of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496, 500-501, 61 S.Ct. 643, 645, 85 L.Ed. 971 (1941); Moreno v. Henckel, 431 F.2d 1299, 1307 (5th Cir. 1970); Reid v. Board of Education, 453 F.2d 238 (2d Cir. 1971).

The court is aware of the recent decision of the New York Court of Appeals...