Court Opinion

ID: 9475561
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:31:12.038655+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:47.265830
License: Public Domain

WISDOM, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
This case is sui generis. Hosey Johnson, the petitioner, his attorney, the prosecutor and, of course, the trial judge and the jury all labored under the mistaken belief that Johnson had pleaded guilty to a second strong-arm robbery that occurred two weeks after the armed robbery for which he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. In fact, Johnson had only acquiesced in the revocation of his parole following an arrest for armed robbery. Mississippi law forbids inquiry into the nature of a defendant’s parole violation even though he testifies in his own behalf.
Johnson himself caused the mistake. Confused by what had happened to the second charge, he told Mr. Varnado, his attorney in this case, that he had pleaded guilty. Johnson took the stand. Then, thinking to take some of the sting out of the second conviction by bringing out that assumed fact himself, rather than having the prosecutor bring it out, Mr. Varnado questioned Johnson about it. There can be no doubt that this misinformation was highly prejudicial. Under Mississippi law the jury decides whether to impose a life sentence on a defendant convicted of armed robbery. Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-79 (Supp. 1985). If the jury decides not to impose a life sentence, the court imposes a sentence of more than three years but less than life. Id.; Lee v. United States, 322 So.2d 751, 753 (Miss.1975).
The majority’s position is that the injury, if any, was self-inflicted. Mr. Varnado acted reasonably. An attorney is entitled to rely on information he receives from his client as to what that client did. I have no quarrel with that as a general proposition. But it should not apply to this case.
I would take judicial knowledge of the fact that laymen as a rule and particularly black defendants in the Deep South have a very limited understanding of criminal legal processes. A reasonably effective defense of a black accused in this part of the country imposes on the defense attorney the duty of obtaining and examining the records- — the "rap sheet”. A glance at Johnson’s rap sheet would have disclosed that he had not been convicted of any armed robbery prior to the trial. Mr. Var-nado obviously understood the importance of a rap sheet, for before trial he filed a motion to obtain Johnson’s. Mr. Varnado is a lawyer of integrity and experience. For reasons which are unknown, the prose*583cutor failed to furnish the rap sheet. For reasons which are unknown, Johnson’s attorney took no steps to follow through on his motion for production of the rap sheet. Hand in hand, the defendant, the defense attorney, and the prosecutor cooperated in inducing the jury to sentence Johnson to life imprisonment.
I would grant the writ.