Court Opinion

ID: 9451071
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:05:49.065971+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:33.879412
License: Public Domain

BOYD, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
The majority seems to hold that appellants were denied due process because of a denial to them of effective assistance of Court-appointed counsel, in particular that appellants were required to stand trial in a criminal case in a Tennessee State Court the same morning of their arraignment, the main insistence being that adequate time within which to prepare for trial was not afforded appellants.
I would affirm the judgment below on the basis of District Judge William E. Miller’s findings which are clearly supported by substantial evidence that Honorable Mark A. Walker who presided at the trial of appellants in the State Court was a thoroughly competent judge and performed his duties in the trial court with due regard for the rights and privileges of the appellants under the Constitution, and that Court-appointed counsel for appellants were capable and experienced in the criminal laws and procedures of the State of Tennessee and represented their clients adequately and protected all of their rights at every stage of the proceeding. The District Judge after a full hearing ruled counsel had adequate time within which to prepare for trial.
While the time interval between arraignment and trial was short in this instance, each case must be considered upon its own peculiar facts. No set rule, to be applied in all cases, as to the interval of time can be imposed and adhered to as a matter of law. From the record in the District Court, counsel for appellants knew a continuance of their clients’ case was open to them had such request been made of the Court. Neither counsel nor appellants desired a delay or deemed one necessary since they under the circumstances considered they had adequate notice and opportunity to confer for the preparation of a proper defense.
I am unable to find in the record that the appellants’ rights were in any way prejudiced as a result of the prompt trial of their case in the State Court. The trial lasted for two days, during which counsel and their clients conferred freely. The Fort Pillow prison at which the riot in which the appellants allegedly participated and in which the appellants were imprisoned prior to and at the time of their trial, was in close proximity to the site of the State Court hearing and easily accessible for any necessary investigation.
*503In the circumstances of this case it cannot, in my opinion, be said appellants were required or permitted to stand trial in the State Court herein in such a way as to be deprived of effective assistance of counsel under the Constitution.