Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/368/443/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 08:28:44+00:00

Document:
In a trial in a Virginia court at which he requested but was denied counsel, petitioner was convicted of having been three times convicted and sentenced for felonies, and he was sentenced to 10 years' additional imprisonment. The applicable statute provides that, when it appears that a person convicted of an offense has been previously sentenced "to a like punishment," he may be tried on an information that alleges "the existence of records of prior convictions and the identity of the prisoner named in each," and it leaves to the trial court's discretion the length of the sentence which may be imposed for three or more convictions. Under Virginia law, not only the identity of the prisoner and the existence of the records, but also the validity of the prior convictions, may be at issue in such a proceeding.
Held: trial on a charge of being a habitual criminal is such a serious one, the issues presented under Virginia's statute are so complex, and the potential prejudice resulting from the absence of counsel is so great that petitioner's trial and conviction without counsel violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Pp. 368 U. S. 443-447.
a like punishment," he may be tried on an information that alleges "the existence of records of prior convictions and the identity of the prisoner with the person named in each." The statute goes on to provide that the prisoner may deny the existence of any such records, or that he is the same person named therein, or both.
If the existence of the records is denied, the court determines whether they exist. If the court so finds and the prisoner denies he is the person mentioned in the records or remains silent, a jury is impaneled to try that issue. If the jury finds he is the same person and if he has one prior conviction, the court may sentence him for an additional term not to exceed five years. If he has been twice sentenced, the court may impose such additional sentence as it "may deem proper."
v. Burke, 334 U. S. 728, where release [on] habeas corpus was sought on the ground that petitioner was without counsel at his recidivist hearing, Mr. Justice Jackson said, in part, as follows (at p. 334 U. S. 731):"
" . . . the State's failure to provide counsel for this petitioner on his plea to the fourth offender charge did not render his conviction and sentence invalid."
"This holding was adhered to in Chandler v. Fretag, 348 U. S. 3, where it was decided that, while a State is not required under the Fourteenth Amendment to furnish counsel, it cannot deny the defendant in a repeater hearing of the right to be heard by counsel of his own choice."
The Law and Equity Court, while conceding that a proceeding under the recidivist statute was "criminal" and that, in that proceeding, the accused was entitled to most of the protections afforded defendants in criminal trials, concluded that petitioner was not entitled to have counsel appointed to assist him, since the proceeding was "only connected with the measure of punishment for the last-committed crime." Cf. Fitzgerald v. Smyth, 194 Va. 681, 689-690, 74 S.E.2d 810, 816.
"whether the second-offender statute may be applied to reimprison a person who has completely satisfied the sentence imposed upon his second conviction and has been discharged from custody."
Id., p. 365 U. S. 532.
the defendant was represented by counsel and whether it was a fair and impartial trial. Willoughby v. Smyth, 194 Va. 267, 271, 72 S.E.2d 636, 639. In Virginia, a prior conviction that is on appeal may not be the proper basis for a recidivist charge. White v. Commonwealth, 79 Va. 611. And there appears to be a question whether two prior convictions rendered the same day or at the same term could both be used in a Virginia multiple-offender prosecution. Commonwealth v. Welsh, 4 Va. 57. See Dye v. Skeen, 135 W.Va. 90, 102-103, 62 S.E.2d 681, 688-689.
Double jeopardy and ex post facto application of a law are also questions which, as indicated in Reynolds v. Cochran, supra, p. 365 U. S. 529, may well be considered by an imaginative lawyer who looks critically at the layer of prior convictions on which the recidivist charge rests. We intimate no opinion on whether any of the problems mentioned would arise on petitioner's trial, nor, if so, whether any would have merit. We only conclude that a trial on a charge of being a habitual criminal is such a serious one (Chandler v. Fretag, 348 U. S. 3), the issues presented under Virginia's statute so complex, and the potential prejudice resulting from the absence of counsel so great, that the rule we have followed concerning the appointment of counsel in other types of criminal trials [Footnote 2] is equally applicable here.
He apparently did not appeal from the conviction. Fitzgerald v. Smyth, 194 Va. 681, 74 S.E.2d 810, however, allows the deprivation of a constitutional right to be raised by habeas corpus.
Williams v. Kaiser, supra; Tomkins v. Missouri, supra; Townsend v. Burke, 334 U. S. 736; Hudson v. North Carolina, 363 U. S. 697; McNeal v. Culver, 365 U. S. 109.

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