Court Opinion

ID: 9460986
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:03:42.943621+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:50.946034
License: Public Domain

*526RONEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent. There is no evidence in the record and no existing evidence suggested by the briefs or the majority opinion which would establish even a prima facie base for a decision that this petitioner could have obtained a probated sentence for his 1949 Texas conviction. On this record, I think we are required by Gutierrez v. Estelle, 474 F.2d 899 (5th Cir. 1973), to affirm the District Court, even if we do what we are not supposed to do, i. e., disregard the credibility decision of the trial court and assume counsel was not present at the 1949 sentencing. Instead of relying on the record and the clear authority of Gutierrez, however, we make our own investigation of the facts outside the record and send the case back for an evi-dentiary hearing about a 25 year old state case concerning a fact point which should not make a shred of difference in the outcome of this ease, if we are to follow Gutierrez. This appears to me to be a waste of judicial resources. I would affirm.