Clarence T. Gladden, Warden Oregon State Penitentiary v. Paul Courter Holland

Paul Courier Holland, in Oregon state penal custody under a twenty-year sentence following his 1960 conviction on a charge of rape, applied to the district court for a writ of habeas corpus. He alleged that his plea of guilty was not voluntary because it was tainted by an immediately preceding involuntary confession. The district court, after a hearing, found that Holland’s plea of guilty was vitiated by a coerced confession. The court denied relief, however, because Holland was also lawfully imprisoned under a five-year sentence based upon an unchallenged conviction for burglary. Holland v. Gladden, D.Ct.D.Or., 226 F. Supp. 654 . We affirmed, Holland v. Gladden, 9 Cir., 338 F.2d 52 .

Following completion of the five-year term for burglary, Holland again applied to the district court for a writ of habeas corpus pertaining to his continuing custody under the sentence for rape. He advanced essentially the same grounds as in his first application to the district court. The court reviewed the record of the prior hearing and again found Holland’s plea of guilty had been tainted by a coerced confession. Accordingly, the court granted the application for a writ of habeas corpus and…