Watts v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 05 November 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-15019,86-15019
• Citation: 841 F.2d 275
• Parties: Franklin Eugene WATTS, Jr., Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 275

841 F.2d 275

Franklin Eugene WATTS, Jr., Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 86-15019.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 5, 1987. ^*

Decided March 2, 1988.

Ladd A. Baumann, Baumann & Hull, Agana, Guam, for petitioner-appellant.

D. Paul Vernier, Jr., Asst. U.S. Atty., Agana, Guam, for respondent-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Guam.

Before BROWNING, Chief Judge, WRIGHT and LEAVY, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2255 a judge may hear a motion by expanding the record with documentary testimony and evidence. In this case we consider the circumstances in which such a hearing is proper. We conclude that Judge Duenas satisfied the requirements of section 2255 by ruling on Watts' motion based on the record of the plea hearing, affidavits from all witnesses to the plea agreement, interrogatories of Watts and his wife, the judge's own recollections of the proceedings, Watts' Rule 35 motion and letters written to the judge by Watts. We affirm the denial of the motion.

BACKGROUND

Watts pleaded guilty to second degree murder and attempted murder. His wife pleaded guilty to the offense of accessory after the fact. The sentencing court conducted thorough Rule 11 plea hearings at which Watts and his wife testified under oath. The court questioned both of them to establish that they entered their pleas voluntarily and knowingly and to establish factual bases for their guilty pleas.

Watts and his wife declared individually that each had read and understood his or her plea agreement. Watts explained to the court that he understood that under the plea agreement he could be sentenced from one day to life in prison, that if the government recommended a sentence greater than thirty years he may challenge it, and that the government would drop the remaining charges if he pleaded guilty to second degree and attempted murder. Watts' wife explained that she knew that she could receive a sentence up to ten years.

The judge explained fully to Watts and his wife the crimes to which they pleaded guilty. Both acknowledged that they understood the judge's explanation. Watts described for the judge the circumstances under which he killed one child and attempted to kill another. His wife described her efforts to protect her husband from the police. Both attorneys examined Watts and his wife about these events. Through his exchanges with both defendants and by observing the examinations of Watts and his wife, Judge Duenas concluded that Watts and his wife pleaded guilty voluntarily and knowingly, and that they confessed truthfully to the crimes.

Watts filed a section 2255 motion to set aside his plea, asserting ineffective assistance of counsel and coercion. He alleged his counsel informed him that the prosecutor had promised that Watts' sentence would be light, that his wife would not serve time in prison, and that his children would be placed in the same foster home if Watts pleaded guilty. Watts further stated his attorney led him to believe the court approved of this agreement. He alleged also that he did not know the terms of his wife's plea agreement because he and his wife were prevented from discussing their agreements while they were held in separate custody. Finally, Watts alleged that his attorney told him not to disclose to the court the secret agreement concerning his wife and children.

Judge Duenas, the judge who sentenced Watts, heard the section 2255 motion. Upon a motion by Watts' attorney, the court held a hearing to determine whether Watts' claim required an evidentiary hearing with Watts and his wife present to testify, or if the court could hear the claim "on the record."

Watts' attorney told the court that the only purpose served by a hearing would be to allow Watts and his wife to testify to the information contained in the interrogatories. Rather than bring Watts and his wife from the continental United States to testify to information that he had before him, the judge admitted for the record interrogatories of Watts and his wife.

On the basis of the records from the plea hearing, the interrogatories of Watts and his wife alleging a secret agreement, affidavits of Watts' former defense counsel and the prosecutor denying such an agreement, affidavits of Watts' in-laws claiming that the attorney of Watts' wife told them of the secret agreement, the Rule 35 motion filed by Watts, two letters written to the Judge by Watts, and his own recollections, Judge Duenas denied Watts' motion.

Watts challenges this denial. He argues that the court erred in resolving contradicting affidavits and interrogatories concerning a secret agreement without an evidentiary hearing at which he and his wife could testify.

ANALYSIS

Section 2255 requires that "[u]nless the motion and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief, the court shall ... grant a prompt hearing ..., determine the issues and make findings of fact and conclusions of law." 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2255 (1982). When section 2255 motions are based on alleged occurrences entirely outside the record, which if true would support relief, the court must conduct a hearing on those allegations "unless, viewing the petition against the record, its allegations do not state a claim for relief or are so patently frivolous or false as to warrant summary dismissal." See Baumann v. United States, 692 F.2d 565, 571 (9th Cir.1982).

In deciding such motions judges need not conduct full evidentiary hearings. See Rules Governing Habeas Corpus Cases. Section 2255 itself "recognizes that there are times when allegations of facts outside the record can be fully investigated without requiring the personal presence of the prisoner." Machibroda v. United States, 368 U.S. 487, 495, 82 S.Ct. 510, 514, 7 L.Ed.2d 473 (1962).

Case law and the Rules Governing Habeas Corpus Cases recognize that courts may expand the record for considering section 2255 motions with discovery and documentary evidence. Blackledge v. Allison, 431 U.S. 63, 81-83, 97 S.Ct. 1621, 1632-34, 52 L.Ed.2d 136 (1977) (citing Rules Governing Habeas Corpus Cases); Farrow v. United States, 580 F.2d 1339, 1352-53 (9th Cir.1978). Judges may also supplement the record with their own notes and recollections of the plea hearing. Abatino v. United States, 750 F.2d 1442, 1444 (9th Cir.1985); Farrow, 580 F.2d at 1352.

Decisions to hold hearings and conduct discovery in such cases are committed to the court's discretion. Machibroda, 368 U.S. at 495, 82 S.Ct. at 514. Section 2255 requires only that the judge give the prisoner's claim "careful consideration and plenary processing, including full opportunity for presentation of the relevant facts." Blackledge, 431 U.S. at 82-83, 97 S.Ct. at 1633.

Although we recognize that "[w]hen the issue is...