Henry Simpson v. Harley O. Teets, Warden, California State Prison at San Quentin

(dissenting).

The court’s opinion has completely missed the point of this appeal. Says the opinion: “The prime contention of Simpson’s counsel appears to be that because the California Supreme Court denied without opinion his petition for the writ, that therefore it did not consider the petition.” (Emphasis mine.) That is not the point at all. Whether a state court shall or shall not write an opinion when it decides a case, is of no concern to any federal court. 1 The appellant here has not argued otherwise. What he has contended is something quite different. It is that he has never had, a hearing, either in the California court, or in the district court below. Of course, he had a hearing on the appeal from his conviction. But the facts he now asserts were not in issue at his trial, or on that appeal. What he now alleges, and seeks to prove is, that the prosecutor for the state knowingly used false testimony to obtain appellant’s conviction, testimony which the State’s Attorney coerced a witness into giving. 2 The petition was *893 inartificially drawn in Simpson’s own handwriting, 3 but the essential allegations are there when it is construed in accordance with the rule of…

Appellant was charged in a California Superior Court of causing his son, Clarence, to murder appellant’s wife, Clarence’s mother. On a trial before a jury a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree was returned against him. The jury determined also that appellant was not insane. A sentence of death was imposed against him. On the mandatory appeal to the state Supreme Court the conviction was affirmed. People v. Simpson, 43 Cal.2d 553 , 275 P.2d 31 . Habeas corpus proceedings were then brought in the state Supreme Court, the petition for the writ being predicated in major part on a claim that appellant’s stepson, Donald Dodge, gaye knowingly perjured testimony on the trial. This petition the California Supreme Court denied. Certiorari was applied for to the United States Supreme Court and was denied. Simpson v. Teets, 349 U.S. 960 , 75 S.Ct. 890 , 99 L.Ed. 1283 .

The present appeal is from a denial of the petition for the writ presented to the court below, District Judge Roche presiding. The petition there lodged and denied is identical in its averments with that presented to the Supreme Court of California and likewise with that accompanying the petition for certiorari…

(concurring).

This case is completely unique on its facts. No previous precedent is controlling.

The salient point in this case is not the utter unsubstantiality of the allegations of the petitions, but the course of these two petitions, virtually identical in form and content, praying release of Simpson on habeas corpus. One of these was lodged in the Supreme Court of California. Its twin was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The Supreme Court of California, who had intimate knowledge of the whole record owing to the previous automatic appeal, dismissed the petition. The District Court held the twin petition in abeyance pending grant or denial of certiorari to the California Court by the United States Supreme Court. It is set up in the petitions that perjured testimony was used by the *892 State in the main trial, but the Supreme Court of California had theretofore accepted this testimony as true. People v. Simpson, 43 Cal.2d 553 , 275 P.2d 31 . There is an allegation of perjury coerced by a Deputy District Attorney, a variation of which is given in each petition. Obviously, petitioner does not claim to be present at the time.…

239 F.2d 890 Henry SIMPSON, Appellant, v. Harley O. TEETS, Warden, California State Prison at San Quentin, Appellee. No. 14895. United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. November 7, 1956. Rehearing Denied December 6, 1956. James F. Thacher, A. J. Zirpoli, San Francisco, Cal., for appellant. Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen. of California, Clarence A. Linn, Arlo E. Smith, Deputy Attys. Gen. of California, for appellee. Before HEALY, POPE and FEE, Circuit Judges. HEALY, Circuit Judge. 1 Appellant was charged in a California Superior Court of causing his son, Clarence, to murder appellant's wife, Clarence's mother. On a trial before a jury a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree was returned against him. The jury determined also that appellant was not insane. A sentence of death was imposed against him. On the mandatory appeal to the state Supreme Court the conviction was affirmed. People v. Simpson, 43 Cal.2d 553 , 275 P.2d 31 . Habeas corpus proceedings were then brought in the state Supreme Court, the petition for the writ being predicated in major part on a claim that appellant's stepson, Donald Dodge, gave knowingly perjured testimony on the trial. This petition the…