Case Name: UNITED STATES of America ex rel. McKinley WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Hon. Harold W. FOLLETTE, Warden of Green Haven State Prison, Stormville, N. Y., Respondent-Appellee
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1969-03-20
Citations: 408 F.2d 658
Docket Number: No. 48, Docket 30964
Parties: UNITED STATES of America ex rel. McKinley WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Hon. Harold W. FOLLETTE, Warden of Green Haven State Prison, Stormville, N. Y., Respondent-Appellee.
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 408
Pages: 658–662

Head Matter:
UNITED STATES of America ex rel. McKinley WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Hon. Harold W. FOLLETTE, Warden of Green Haven State Prison, Stormville, N. Y., Respondent-Appellee.
No. 48, Docket 30964.
United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.
Argued Sept. 10, 1968.
Decided March 20, 1969.
Lumbard, J., dissented.
Gretchen White Oberman, New York City (Anthony F. Marra, New York City, on the brief), for petitioner-appellant.
Murray Sylvester, Asst. Atty. Gen., State of New York (Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., and Samuel A. Hirshowitz, First Asst. Atty. Gen., on the brief), for respondent-appellee.
Before LUMBARD, Chief Judge, and SMITH and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
J. JOSEPH SMITH, Circuit Judge:
This is an appeal by McKinley Williams from an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Thomas F. Croake, J., denying, without a hearing, his application for a writ of habeas corpus. Reversed and remanded for a hearing to determine the voluntariness of Williams' guilty plea.
On January 23, 1956, Mabel Cummings was held up with a toy pistol, raped, and robbed. Two days later Williams was arrested, and while in police custody he confessed. On March 16, 1956, he appeared in Bronx County Court and entered a plea of guilty on the advice of his lawyer. On April 19, 1956, Williams was convicted of second degree robbery on his plea of guilty and was sentenced to 7% to 15 years in prison as a second felony offender. No appeal was taken from the judgment of conviction.
In 1964 petitioner applied for a writ of error cor am nobis to vacate this conviction. In his petition, Williams stated that he was arrested without a warrant and taken to the Simpson Street police station where he was held on an "open" charge, that he was held for 16 hours before being arraigned, that he was handcuffed to a desk while interrogated by police about a two-day old crime, that he was threatened with a pistol and physically abused, that he was not informed of his right to counsel, and that he gave a confession out of fear and exhaustion. He also alleged that he was inadequately represented by assigned counsel; that he did not want to plead guilty; that his attorney (who was later disbarred), knowing of an alibi defense, talked him into pleading guilty and misled him into thinking that he was pleading guilty to a misdemeanor rather than a felony. He allegedly was not told of the consequences of his plea or the nature or meaning of the charge. Faced with the allegedly coerced confession, and the New York procedure, later declared unconstitutional in Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908, 1 A.L.R.3d 1205 (1964), whereby the jury would determine the voluntariness of his confession, Williams entered the guilty plea.
His writ was denied without a hearing in the state courts, and thereupon Williams applied for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Judge Croake denied Williams' petition without a hearing on the basis of United States ex rel. Glenn v. McMann, 349 F.2d 1018, 1019 (2 Cir. 1965), cert. denied 383 U.S. 915, 86 S.Ct. 906, 15 L.Ed.2d 669 (1966), where we said that "a voluntary plea entered on advice of counsel is a waiver of all non-jurisdictional defects in any prior stage of the proceedings." In addition, Judge Croake said that he had some difficulty accepting "the assertion that the right to go to trial was relinquished because [petitioner] believed he would not receive a fair determination on the issue of voluntariness," since Williams entered his plea of guilty almost eight years prior to the Supreme Court decision in Jackson v. Denno, supra.
In United States ex rel. Ross v. McMann, 409 F.2d 1016 (2 Cir. February 26, 1969) (en banc), and its companion case, United States ex rel. Dash v. Follette, 409 F.2d 1016 (2 Cir. February 26, 1969) (en banc), we held that while a voluntary guilty plea constitutes a waiver of all non-jurisdictional defects, a conviction based on a guilty plea is open to collateral attack if the petitioner can show that the plea was not in fact voluntary. Explaining that it was wrong to read Glenn as an absolute bar to collateral attack when there is an issue as to the motivation of the plea, we said that there must be a hearing where the constitutional violations alleged are not irrelevant to the issue of voluntariness. "A guilty plea, if induced by promises or threats which deprive it of the character of a voluntary act, is void." Machibroda v. United States, 368 U.S. 487, 493, 82 S.Ct. 510, 513, 7 L.Ed.2d 473 (1962). The applicable principle was stated by the Supreme Court in Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 312-313, 83 S.Ct. 745, 757, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963):
Where the facts are in dispute, the federal court in habeas corpus must hold an evidentiary hearing if the ha-beas applicant did not receive a full and fair evidentiary hearing in a state court, either at the time of the trial or in a collateral proceeding. In other words a federal evidentiary hearing is required unless the state-court trier of fact has after a full hearing reliably found the relevant facts.
In Ross and Dash we also rejected the argument that defendants who refused to run the pre-Jackson gantlet could be said to have deliberately waived the right to test the voluntariness of their confessions. "The petitioner cannot be deemed to have waived his coerced confession claim by deliberately by-passing state procedures when the state failed to afford a constitutionally acceptable means of presenting that claim, and he cannot be deemed to have entered a voluntary plea of guilty if the plea was substantially motivated by a coerced confession the validity of which he was unable, for all practical purposes, to contest." United States ex rel. Ross v. McMann, supra at 1024 of 409 F.2d.
For the reasons set forth in Ross and Dash, we think that the allegations in Williams' petition are sufficient to require a hearing on the voluntariness of his guilty plea. He says that he was threatened with a pistol and that he confessed to a "tale" narrated by a plainclothesman. He says that the confession was the only evidence against him, an allegation which, if true, makes this an even stronger case than Ross or Dash. He says that he was not even in the state at the time of the alleged crime. None of these allegations are controverted by the record. Unlike United States ex rel. Rosen v. Follette, 409 F.2d 1042 (2 Cir. February 26, 1969) (en banc), therefore, Williams' petition alleges significantly more than the "rather vague claim that the plea was somehow infected by the confession." at 1045.
Despite six coram nobis applications in New York, Williams has never had a state hearing, and yet plainly the allegations in his petition raise questions which cannot be answered by reference to the transcript alone. If petitioner pleaded guilty on the advice of a lawyer who knew of the existence of a perfectly good alibi defense, then there is certainly some question as to whether Williams was adequately represented by counsel when he entered his guilty plea. "[I]t is not for a lawyer to fabricate defenses, but he does have an affirmative obligation to make suitable inquiry to determine whether valid ones exist." Jones v. Cunningham, 313 F.2d 347, 353 (4 Cir.), cert. denied 375 U.S. 832, 84 S.Ct. 42, 11 L.Ed.2d 63 (1965). See also Quarles v. Balkcom, 354 F.2d 985 (5 Cir. 1966), where the Fifth Circuit held that the petitioner, who was incarcerated in a county jail on the date of the alleged crime, was entitled to an evidentiary hearing to show that his guilty plea was a "mistake" and that the plea was induced by inadequate representation of counsel.
Similarly, if petitioner was misled by his lawyer into thinking he was pleading guilty to a misdemeanor, there is some question as to whether the guilty plea was made "intelligently." Compare United States ex rel. Boucher v. Reincke, 341 F.2d 977 (2 Cir. 1965). Indeed, the Supreme Court has said that withdrawal of a guilty plea should be allowed if it has been "unfairly obtained or given through ignorance, fear or inadvertence." Kercheval v. United States, 274 U.S. 220, 224, 47 S.Ct. 582, 583, 71 L.Ed. 1009 (1927). Under these circumstances, the petitioner is entitled to an evidentiary hearing to determine whether "the guilty plea was freely made, without infection from the confession and with 'effective assistance of counsel.'" Smith v. Wainwright, 373 F.2d 506, 508 (5 Cir. 1967).
This does not mean, of course, that the petitioner will necessarily prevail on the merits, but we think that he has alleged enough to require a hearing. As we said in Ross and Dash, the conviction would stand if the habeas judge determined either that the confession was voluntary and that petitioner was represented by competent counsel, or if petitioner was unable to show that the plea was substantially motivated by the confession or the alleged incompetence of assigned counsel.
We reverse and remand with instructions to hear and determine petitioner's application unless a hearing is held by the courts of the state determining under the standards set forth herein the issue of the voluntariness of petitioner's plea within 60 days from the date of issuance of the mandate herein, or such further time as the District Court may for good cause allow.