Caryl Chessman v. Harley O. Teets, Warden, California State Prison, San Quentin, California

This is an appeal from an order denying Caryl Chessman’s eleventh application for a writ of habeas corpus.

He was convicted on May 21, 1948, of seventeen felonies. 1 Two sentences of death and fifteen sentences of imprisonment were entered on June 25, 1948. Following denial of his motion for a new trial, Chessman appealed to the California supreme court.

While this appeal was pending, appellant instituted several proceedings challenging the accuracy and completeness of the transcript on appeal and the validity of the proceedings in which it had been settled. 2 Most of these proceedings revolved around the fact that after the trial, the court reporter died before completing his transcript of the testimony. The transcript was completed by another court reporter, and certified after a hearing whch appellant was not permitted to attend.

For the most part, appellant was unsuccessful in these early efforts to invalidate or augment the transcript. He did, however, obtain inclusion in the transcript of the voir dire examination of the jurors and the opening statement of the prosecuting attorney. People v. Chessman, 35 Cal.2d 455 , 218 P.2d 769 , 19 A.L.R.2d 1084 , certiorari denied 340…

(dissenting).

Since the Supreme Court holds the due process of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to the trial in the Los Angeles Superior Court to create a record of what happened there, as the basis of an appeal from Chessman’s death sentence, the Superior Court’s admitted refusal to permit him to participate in the trial, denied him due process. Hence the Superior Court’s order creating the record must be set aside and the California Supreme Court’s affirmation based on that record also must be set aside and the trial for the determination of the record proceed anew in the Los Angeles Superior Court with Chessman participating therein.

Piecemeal Due Process

I dissent from the extraordinary doctrine that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies only in part to the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s trial of facts to determine the transcript of what had transpired in that court, as the basis for the review of that court’s death sentence in the California Supreme Court.

Nothing is better established than that the due process of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that a party affected by the decision of a trial shall be given notice and an opportunity to…

Upon Petition for Rehearing

The petition for rehearing is denied.

239 F.2d 205 Caryl CHESSMAN, Appellant, v. Harley O. TEETS, Warden, California State Prison, San Quentin, California, Appellee. No. 15092. United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. Oct. 18, 1956. Rehearing Denied Nov. 20, 1956. Opinions on Denial of Rehearing Nov. 27 and Nov. 28, 1956. George T. Davis, San Francisco, Cal., Rosalie S. Asher, Sacramento, Cal., Caryl Chessman, in pro. per., for appellant. Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen., Clarence A. Linn, Asst. Atty. Gen., Arlo E. Smith, Deputy Atty. Gen., State of Cal., for appellee. Before DENMAN, Chief Judge, and LEMMON and HAMLEY, Circuit Judges. HAMLEY, Circuit Judge. 1 This is an appeal from an order denying Caryl Chessman's eleventh application for a writ of habeas corpus. 2 He was convicted on May 21, 1948, of seventeen felonies. 1 Two sentences of death and fifteen sentences of imprisonment were entered on June 25, 1948. Following denial of his motion for a new trial, Chessman appealed to the California supreme court. 3 While this appeal was pending, appellant instituted several proceedings challenging the accuracy and completeness of the transcript on appeal and the validity of the proceedings in which it had been settled.…