Richard Bellew v. J. B. Gunn

Petitioner, in state custody at Folsom State Prison, Represa, California, filed his petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court, alleging that his guilty plea to a charge of second-degree robbery in 1943 in the Municipal Court for the City and County of San Francisco (1) was “not freely and voluntarily entered, but was coerced by counsel,” and (2) “was not knowingly and intelligently made.” An ev-identiary hearing was held, and the district court denied the petition. We affirm.

We note that thirty years after his conviction, petitioner for the first time challenges the legitimacy of his guilty plea and the judgment imposed thereon. Petitioner has been incarcerated in a variety of penal institutions for all but twenty-three months of that period and claims that the extended delay in attacking his conviction is the result of his financial inability to hire counsel, and a prison rule which prevented him from discussing his case with other prison inmates. During his twenty-three months out of prison he talked with no one on this subject.

We next note that although the district court found that petitioner had provided credible reasons for the delay,…