Court Opinion

ID: 9451971
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:28:12.502588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:34.252866
License: Public Domain

HAMLEY, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
As indicated in the majority opinion, this court is not expressing agreement with the ground relied upon by the district'court in denying the application— that Choate had deliberately by-passed state appeal procedures wherein he could have obtained a determination of his involuntary confession question. Instead, this court is disposing of the appeal on the alternative ground; suggested by ap-pellee on this appeal, that certain California cases “ * * * raise the possibility that petitioner can obtain state appellate review of his conviction * * As indicated by the quoted words, the appellee is himself not very sure that Choate still has a remedy by state appeal.
In view of these circumstances, I feel that affirmance of the order denying Choate’s application with the intimation that there “ * * * may be a State remedy available to appellant which he should pursue before seeking relief in the Federal Courts,” is not the best way of disposing of this appeal. I think it would have been preferable to reverse and remand with directions to afford Choate a reasonable opportunity to seek reinstatement of his right to a state appeal. If he did not follow that course or, following it, the state court reinstated his right of appeal, the federal habeas corpus proceeding could then be dismissed. If the state court denied reinstatement of the right to appeal, it would be established that Choate had exhausted his state remedies. The district court could then have proceeded in the remanded proceedings to determine the volun-tariness of the confession, affording Choate an evidentiary hearing if appel-lee’s answer to the application (not yet filed) created an issue of fact.
However, I do not dissent because of the way in which the majority has disposed of the appeal because I suppose that, in the long run, Choate can get back into a federal habeas court if he is not afforded a state appeal.
*546It seems to "me that the district court is entitled to know why we do not affirm on the ground relied upon by that court. I therefore take this means of stating the reasons why, in my opinion, we cannot approve the district court’s rationale.
In Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 439, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837, relied upon by the district court in holding that there was a deliberate by-passing of state appeal procedures, the court indicated that the classic definition of waiver enunciated in Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 1023, 82 L.Ed. 1461— “an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege”— furnishes the controlling standard.
Choate had a right to appeal his state conviction of second degree murder without running the risk of being convicted, at a new trial, of first degree murder. Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 78 S.Ct. 221, 2 L.Ed.2d 199; People v. Henderson, 60 Cal.2d 482, 35 Cal.Rptr. 77, 386 P.2d 677. But, as indicated in the majority opinion, Choate has alleged facts tending to show that he did not know of this right and therefore, in failing to appeal, did not intentionally relinquish or abandon a known right. These allegations are to the effect that Choate’s attorney told him he had no such right but that, on the contrary, if he should appeal he would run the risk of a .first de-. gree murder conviction in the event a new trial was ordered.
In view of these allegations (and assuming that appellee would have denied the allegations had he been afforded an opportunity to answer) I believe the district court should not have determined the question of whether Choate had deliberately by-passed state appeal procedures without first affording him an evidentiary hearing. If appellee did not dispute the allegations, or if such allegations were sustained in an evidentiary hearing, then, as I see it, it could not be correctly held that Choate had deliberately by-passed state appeal procedures.
I wish also to express the view that a certificate of probable cause, issued pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 (1964), may not be so phrased as effectively to limit the issues which may be considered on the appeal thereby authorized. The function of such a certificate is not to specify issues which may be reviewed on appeal, but to confer jurisdiction on a court of appeals to entertain the appeal, including all issues which may properly be presented.