Opinion ID: 1393905
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Nature of the People's Burden

Text: (10) Respondent first contends the Court of Appeal erred by requiring him, in his return, to carry the burden of disproving the petitioner's factual allegations. Assuming that the lower court's opinion can be so construed, we agree it erred. The People need not prove the habeas corpus petitioner's factual allegations are wrong; if an evidentiary hearing is held, it is the petitioner who bears the burden of proof. At this pleading stage, however, the general rule has been that respondent must either admit the factual allegations set forth in the habeas corpus petition, or allege additional facts that contradict those allegations. If a dispute arises regarding material facts, the appellate court will then appoint a referee to determine the true facts at a hearing in which the petitioner will have the burden of proof. At this early stage, however, the People's burden is one of pleading, not proof. [7] Respondent declares that the fact pleading burden we reiterate today is one that, as a practical matter, may be impossible to meet in this case. He emphasizes that trial counsel is dead and is thus unavailable to confirm or deny the existence of past conversations with counsel that defendant alleges took place. Although respondent strongly suspects that defendant's factual allegations are untrue, he therefore has no facts presently at his disposal that can be alleged in the return to contradict those allegations. Thus, respondent asserts that a strict adherence to the rule requiring him to plead facts in the return poses a procedural dilemma: the People cannot obtain a hearing in which they can cross-examine defendant and his declarants without stating facts in the return, but they cannot obtain those facts without an evidentiary hearing. This dilemma illustrates how the prior rule, as announced in Saunders, supra, 2 Cal.3d at page 1047, Lawler, supra, 23 Cal.3d at page 194, and Sixto, supra, 48 Cal.3d at page 1252, requiring respondent to plead facts, in his return, that are responsive to the petition, may be inadequate in cases in which the respondent has no easy or reasonable access to the facts, such as some claims alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel and/or claims that hinge on the credibility of witnesses. In our experience, such attorney incompetence claims are now made almost routinely to attack alleged trial errors, no doubt at least partly due to our admonition in 1979 that [w]here the [trial] record does not illuminate the basis for the challenged acts or omissions, a claim of ineffective assistance [of counsel] is more appropriately made in a petition for habeas corpus. ( People v. Pope, supra, 23 Cal.3d at p. 426.) Moreover, experience shows that it is not unusual for trial counsel to refuse to speak with the respondent when his or her competence is called into question. In such cases, one side to the dispute may have sole and exclusive access to the one source of information that is critical to the fair and proper resolution of the dispute. In such circumstances, it is unreasonable to expect respondent to obtain and plead such facts, on pain of what is essentially a default judgment. (11) We thus acknowledge the possibility that a habeas corpus petition could contain factual allegations that, under the circumstances of a particular case, would be difficult or impossible for the respondent to contradict with contrary factual allegations prior to an evidentiary hearing. If, for example, conversations are alleged to have been held in private between defense counsel and his or her client, it may be impossible to obtain and allege facts to refute the allegation, especially if counsel refuses to speak to respondent or, as here, counsel has died. In such a situation, key facts are in the sole possession of the habeas corpus petitioner. Nevertheless, respondent may harbor an honest and reasonable belief that a particular factual allegation is untrue. In addition, proper resolution of a habeas corpus claim may hinge on the credibility of a witness. For example, in this case, the most important factual allegations in defendant's habeas corpus petition were that his trial attorney was aware that defendant was intoxicated at the time of the crime, and that counsel never discussed the matter with him. As the attorney has died, defendant is probably the only witness who can confirm these facts. Nevertheless, he must prove them before he will be entitled to relief, and such proof will necessarily entail an assessment of his personal credibility. It seems manifest that other than flatly denying the truth of these factual allegations, respondent will not be able to allege facts tending to show defendant is not credible. In a similar vein, declarations by experts presented by a habeas corpus petitioner need not be met with counterdeclarations by experts solicited by respondent. Instead, it is sufficient for the respondent to inform the court it intends to dispute the credibility of the petitioner's expert. We reiterate that the respondent bears the burden of pleading facts, not proving them at this early stage in the proceedings. Respondent remains free, of course, to present his own expert evidence at any ensuing evidentiary hearing in an attempt to discredit or undermine the evidence of the petitioner's expert evidence. In such cases (which, as suggested above, will often involve allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel), where access to critical information is limited or denied to one party, where it is unreasonable to expect a party to obtain information at the pleading stage, or where the proper resolution of a case hinges on the credibility of witnesses, the general rule requiring the pleading of facts should not be enforced in such a draconian fashion so as to defeat the ends of justice. When one party (respondent for the return, petitioner for the traverse) can allege: (i) he or she has acted with due diligence; (ii) crucial information is not readily available; and (iii) that there is good reason to dispute certain alleged facts or question the credibility of certain declarants, courts evaluating the return and traverse should endeavor to determine whether there are facts legitimately in dispute that may require holding an evidentiary hearing. To assist the court in making that determination, the return should set forth with specificity: (i) why information is not readily available; (ii) the steps that were taken to try to obtain it; and (iii) why a party believes in good faith that certain alleged facts are untrue. For example, in this case, because counsel is deceased, respondent has demonstrated the impossibility of obtaining facts to counter the petitioner's allegations that he had certain conversations with his defense counsel. Had counsel been alive, respondent could have satisfied his burden by alleging that he had an investigator contact counsel and that counsel refused to speak with the investigator. Respondent could then identify what facts he is disputing, thereby assisting the court in determining whether there are material facts in dispute to justify an evidentiary hearing. By pleading such facts, the return will fulfill its historical role of helping to narrow the contested issues for the court while holding respondent to his statutory burden of pleading. [8] (12) Applying that rule here, we find that, although the return may be technically deficient, its contents, coupled with the memorandum of points and authorities, demonstrate respondent has identified the facts he wishes to dispute, namely, the truthfulness and credibility of both petitioner and Harrington. Moreover, given counsel's death and respondent's arguments before this court, it appears the critical information is possessed by petitioner and is not reasonably available to respondent. Under these circumstances, applying a clarified rule requiring respondent to plead facts in the return only if reasonably available, we find that the Court of Appeal should have appointed a referee to hold an evidentiary hearing to determine the truth or falsity of petitioner's and Harrington's factual allegations regarding counsel's failure to investigate and present a defense based on petitioner's alleged diminished mental state.