Court Opinion

ID: 9464593
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:38:00.134225+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:43.534110
License: Public Domain

WIDENER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I do not agree with the majority holding “that the certificate of the state trial judge fails to establish that the North Carolina sentence was not imposed in contravention of United States v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 443, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972).” At 1265. In addition, I do not agree that the North Carolina District Court on remand should pass upon the validity of the Virginia convictions; rather, I think a district court in Virginia to be a more appropriate forum. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
I think the majority is incorrect as it states that Brown and Stepheney require the sentencing judge to “say with certainty that the prior allegedly invalid convictions did not influence the sentence that he imposed,” at 1267. A careful reading of those opinions does not disclose that requirement in either case, and I note the majority cites no reference in either case discussing or requiring a standard of “certainty” because there is none. Instead, this court, in Stepheney, 516 F.2d at 9, required the sentencing judge to:
say with assurance that assumption of invalidity of the questioned prior convictions, if made at the time of sentencing, would not have resulted in a lighter sentence .
Because our decisions following Brown have resulted in semantical investigation into the language employed by the sentencing judge, the certificate must be considered in its entirety:
“FRANKLIN D. STRADER,
Petitioner
-vs-
ANDREW P. MILLER and THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA,
Respondents
CERTIFICATE OF THE ' TRIAL JUDGE
“The undersigned having reviewed the contentions of the Petitioner in this action regarding previous convictions of Petitioner as set forth on the F.B.I. Report and the effect of said Report on the sentence entered in Petitioner’s case by the undersigned does hereby certify and acknowledge that the contents of said F.B.I. Report were made known to the undersigned at or before the time of the sentencing of Petitioner as well as various other information both from the District Attorney and from the Petitioner’s Attorney and the undersigned feels that regardless of the F.B.I. Report, a lesser sentence would not have been imposed and to send the Petitioner back for resentencing would result in the same sentence heretofore imposed being reimposed and sending him back for resentencing would serve no useful purpose either for the Petitioner or for the State.
“The undersigned feels there would not have been a lesser sentence imposed had the undersigned been unaware of the prior convictions or had assumed their invalidity.
“This the 7th day of September, 1976.
Signed “Robert A. Collier. Jr.” ROBERT A. COLLIER, JR.
Judge of the Superior Court
Twenty-Second Judicial District
of North Carolina”
*1271I cannot agree with the majority that the certificate is in any way “equivocal,” at 1267, assuming that the majority grants to “equivocal” its standard meaning:
having two or more significations: capable of more than one interpretation: of doubtful meaning: AMBIGUOUS
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary at 769. The American Heritage Dictionary at 443 lists very nearly the same definition: “capable of two interpretations; cryptic; evasive; ambiguous.” There is nothing “doubtful,” “ambiguous,” “cryptic,” or “evasive” I can find in the certificate. Only one interpretation of the certificate seems possible, and that is Strader’s earlier convictions made no difference to the State trial judge; were Strader again to come before the judge the same sentence would result.
In the majority’s view, however, what seems to be the plain meaning of the certificate has been overturned by the sentencing judge’s choice of the word “feel” to express his degree of certitude. “Feel” denotes “believe, think, hold,” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary at 834; and in legal parlance very nearly the same thing: see cases collected at “Feel, Felt,” 16 Words and Phrases, p. 544. Unfortunately, to “believe, think, hold” does not provide the majority with the “certainty” that is required by the present opinion, or even the “assurance” required by Stepheney, for it invalidates the certificate on that ground.
In deciding that “feel,” and thus “believe” and “think” lack the requisite certitude, the majority has established a more stringent standard for other judges than we demand of federal judges as shown by our own opinions. For “feel” see: MacKethan v. Burrus, Cootes & Burrus, 545 F.2d 1388, 1390 (4th Cir. 1976) (“We feel”); ITO Corp. v. Benefits Review Board, 529 F.2d 1080, 1088 (4th Cir. 1975) (“we do not feel”); Collins v. Mathews, 547 F.2d 795, 799 (4th Cir. 1976) (dissenting opinion) (“I feel”). For “think” see: United States v. Figurski, 545 F.2d 389, 391-92 (4th Cir. 1976) (“We think,” “we do not think”); EEOC v. United Virginia Bank, 555 F.2d 403, 406 (4th Cir. 1977) (“We do not think”); Roman v. ESB, Inc., 550 F.2d 1343, 1359-62 (4th Cir. 1976) (dissenting opinion) (“I think”). For “believe” see: Burch v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 554 F.2d 633, 635 (4th Cir. 1977) (“We also believe”); Long v. Robinson, 432 F.2d 977, 981 (4th Cir. 1970) (“I do not believe”); Fuller v. Laurens County School Dist. No. 56, 563 F.2d 137 at 141-142 (4th Cir. 1977) (dissenting opinion) (“I believe”).
Like ourselves, the justices of the Supreme Court often deliver their opinions in terms of “feel,” “think,” or “believe.” See, e. g., Finch v. United States, 433 U.S. 676, 97 S.Ct. 2909, 53 L.Ed.2d 1048 (1977) (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) (“If the Court feels”); Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Kneip, 430 U.S. 584, 617, 97 S.Ct. 1361, 51 L.Ed.2d 660 (1977) (Marshall, J., dissenting) (“I therefore feel”); Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 409, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 51 L.Ed.2d 424 (1977) (Marshall, J., concurring) (“I think”); Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545, 556, 97 S.Ct. 837, 51 L.Ed.2d 30 (1977) (“we believe”).
No one doubts that federal judges deliver their opinions “with assurance,” Stepheney, supra, though the opinions speak in terms of “feel,” “think,” or “believe,” for certainly we do not decide the liberty of citizens or their rights in property with less than assurance of the correctness of the opinion. We should not exact from other judges a standard we need not and do not set for ourselves.
Fairly read, the sentencing judge’s certificate provides us with ample “assurance,” “certainty,” or whatever word may be chosen as the standard in the context of these cases. Fortunately, the sentencing judge here is permitted to furnish a new certificate. Perhaps he now will tell us “with *1272certainty” the effect of Strader’s other convictions, or he may even give us something less than certainty, such as the “assurance” we required in Stepheney, and which has not been overruled for this is not an en banc court as was Stepheney. A change of one or two words in the current certificate, or a new certificate quoting from Stepheney, 516 F.2d at 9, should suffice and, I hope, avoid the need for further ventures into what I consider to be the overly technical construction of Brown which has now subverted its plain meaning and become a play on words.
Even accepting for argument what I consider to be an unduly strict construction of Brown, I cannot disagree with its direction to the district court on remand to “proceed to a determination of the validity of Strader’s four Virginia convictions which resulted in incarceration,” at 1269. But I disagree with the apparently unlimited sweep of the majority’s holding if applied to facts other than present here. The North Carolina federal court may indeed pass upon the validity of Strader’s Virginia convictions, but only as those convictions “form a basis for the conditions of his confinement in North Carolina.” Norris v. Georgia, 522 F.2d 1006, 1012 (4th Cir. 1975). The district court may not consider or adjudge the intrinsic validity of the Virginia convictions. Id. A contrary construction of the opinion would adopt the dissenting position in Norris which another panel may not do.1
I think it a proper, if not required, practice that an attack upon a State conviction be transferred to a federal court within the convicting State. In Grant v. Connecticut, No. 77-1698 (order filed October 19, 1977), for example, this court directed a district court in North Carolina to transfer the petitioner’s attack on his Connecticut conviction to the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.
in Strader’s case, however, this court already has ordered a transfer from the Western District of Virginia, where Strader originally filed his action, to the Middle District of North Carolina so Strader could exhaust his North Carolina State remedies. In light of this history, it might appear unseemly for the North Carolina district court to order the cause transferred back to the Western District of Virginia. Nevertheless, transfer has so many obvious advantages, the district court should order it. Not only would transfer enable the prisoner to get a final adjudication of his convictions, for a district court in Virginia could determine their validity for all purposes, not merely for their limited effect on Strader’s North Carolina incarceration; in addition, that court could consider Strader’s claims without the restriction of limited process and subpoena powers which necessarily confront a North Carolina district court in the consideration of a Virginia conviction. See Norris v. Georgia, 522 F.2d 1006, 1008-10 (4th Cir. 1975). After those proceedings were complete, Strader might then proceed with his case against the North Carolina Parole Board.

. In passing, I note the implied criticism of the majority of a part of Brown it styles dictum. The opinion neglects to mention the same requirement in the en banc opinion in Stepheney, p. 9.