Court Opinion

ID: 9447597
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:38:34.747169+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:06.418994
License: Public Domain

FAHY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
On May 15, 1959, the District Court without a hearing denied appellant’s section 2255 motion. The motion alleged inter alia that at the time of his plea of guilty of robbery, and sentence therefor in 1949, he was not competent to stand trial or to assist in his defense. His motion papers gave certain details. He alleged he had been discharged from the United States Navy in 1945 because he was then suffering from psychoneurosis, and that he had been found at that time to be suffering from syphilis, a condition he alleges persisted until his incarceration in 1949. In support he attached a letter from the senior medical officer of the jail. Finally he alleged he would produce witnesses and additional testimony in support of the foregoing.
He did not appeal from the denial of the motion on May 15, 1959, but this is explained by the fact that he had no notice of the denial until after the appeal period had expired.1
On July 29,1959, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus. It is from the denial without a hearing of any process under this petition that he now appeals. He states in the petition for the writ that when he appeared in court to answer the indictment he was not well, “both mentally and physically,” that his mind was in a state of anxiety, turmoil and frustration, so as to render impossible his capacity for thinking with reason, and that he was torn with fear. He was without counsel. He further alleges that when he did not get to see the attorney he had been led to believe would be present, when the judge asked him if he would like counsel he does not recall just what was said but is informed he replied in the negative, and pleaded guilty, remembering that several police officers had told him to do so and promised to see that he would not get over one to three years sentence since he was a first offender. He also states in the petition that he had at no time waived his right to be represented by counsel, repeats the allegations respecting psychoneurosis, and adds that he had been confined to the 'Psychopathic Ward of the Naval Hospital at Pearl Harbor five months before his discharge in 1945, and that his mental and physical deterioration was such that he was not competent voluntarily or understandingly to plead. He alleges further he was not afforded a chance to consult with counsel as to his mental state and condition, to have a motion made to the court for an examination appropriate in the premises, and that he was not represented by counsel as he had been promised.
Appellant’s three attempts to gain collateral relief prior to his section 2255 motion which was denied May 15, 1959, raised issues concerning his right to counsel and whether there had been a waiver of that right. No allegation of mental incompetence to plead appeared in those prior motions, and, as I have said, there was no hearing on the issues raised in his petition of July 29, 1959, the denial of which is the subject of the present appeal.
In view of the unchallenged allegations in his petition of July 29,1959, especially when considered with the failure of the court at the time of accepting his plea and sentencing him to advise appellant *368clearly of his constitutional right to the assistance of counsel, it was error I think for the court to deny the petition without a hearing, and even without the issuance of a rule to show cause. See Smith v. United States, 106 U.S.App.D.C. 169, 270 F.2d 921, and cases therein cited, including Seidner v. United States, 104 U.S.App.D.C. 214, 260 F.2d 732.

. His attorney did receive notice but it does not appear that appellant was notified. His present counsel represents that appellant was not notified.