Winters v. State, 46191
| Decision Date | 08 February 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 46191,46191 |
| Citation | 244 So.2d 1 |
| Parties | Matthew WINTERS v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Constance Iona Slaughter, Jackson, for appellant.
A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Guy N. Rogers, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
This is an appeal by Matthew Winters from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Holmes County overruling appellant's motion to vacate his previous conviction by a plea of guilty to a charge of murder, and the life sentence imposed as a result of his plea. We affirm.
Appellant, a Negro, was indicted at the April 1963 term of the Circuit Court of Holmes County for the murder of E. T. Branch, a Caucasian. He was at the time seventeen years of age and his family employed David E. Crawley, Jr. of Kosciusko, Mississippi, to defend him on this charge. Upon arraignment appellant pled not guilty. His counsel, after an investigation, was convinced from what appellant and members of his family had told him relative to the facts in the case that appellant had no real defense to the charge unless a mental examination would reveal that appellant was insane. Counsel then filed a petition asking that appellant be committed to the state hospital for a mental examination, and the court entered an order so committing him. He was found to be without psychosis and was returned to the Holmes County Jail. At the October 1963 term appellant entered a plea of guilty to the charge of murder and was sentenced to serve a life term in the State Penitentiary.
On October 6, 1969, appellant filed a motion in the Circuit Court of Holmes County seeking to have his sentence vacated. The motion alleged that at the time of his indictment, and for a long time prior thereto, Negroes had been deliberately excluded from service on the grand and petit juries in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. It was also alleged that appellant was denied his right of effective assistance of counsel because his counsel failed to advise him of his right to challenge the indictment on the systematic exclusion of Negroes from the grand jury and his right to stand trial by a jury from which Negroes had not been systematically excluded. It was further alleged that because he was a Negro layman and uneducated in law, he did not recognize or become aware of his constitutional right until shortly before filing his petition to vacate.
The trial court conducted a full evidentiary hearing on the motion, and the evidence supports the following finding by the court:
The court finds from the testimony presented at the hearing that David Crawley, Jr., is and has been a member of the Mississippi State Bar in good standing since 1942, that as a part of his practice prior to 1963, he had handled a number of criminal cases, including murder cases. The court further finds that the petitioner's attorney, Mr. Crawley, investigated the charges against his client thoroughly, that his investigation showed no substantial conflicts as to the occurrence of the crime, that Mr. Crawley believed based upon his investigation that to go to trial would put his client in imminent danger of receiving the death penalty, that Mr. Crawley considered raising every...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Jefferson v. State, 07-58547
...plea waives all other defects or insufficiencies in the indictment. Williams v. State, 512 So.2d 666, 672 (Miss.1987); Winters v. State, 244 So.2d 1, 2 (Miss.1971); Wilcher v. State, 152 Miss. 13, 118 So. 356 (1928); see also Perkins v. State, 487 So.2d 791, 792 (Miss.1986). A defendant's r......
-
Winters v. Cook, 71-3323.
...plea waived all nonjurisdictional defects." (App. at 108.) That decision was affirmed, February 8, 1971, by the Mississippi Supreme Court. 244 So.2d 1. Thereafter, Winters instituted this suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, seeking habeas corpu......
-
Brooks v. State
...a defendant. See Houston v. State, 461 So.2d 720, 723 (Miss.1984); Sanders v. State, 440 So.2d 278, 283 (Miss.1983); Winters v. State, 244 So.2d 1, 2 (Miss.1971); United States v. Diaz, 733 F.2d 371, 376 (5th Cir.1984) (A valid guilty plea waives all non-jurisdictional defects in proceeding......
-
Winters v. Cook, GC 7120-K.
...the grand jury. Petitioner appealed to the Supreme Court of Mississippi, which affirmed the decision of the Circuit Court. Winters v. State, 244 So. 2d 1 (Miss.1971).1 Being dissatisfied with the results obtained in the state court proceedings, petitioner has filed in this court his petitio......