Robert John Arndell v. Warden, Nevada State Prison

After pleading guilty in the District Court of the State of Nevada to a charge of sale of a controlled substance, appellant Arndell was sentenced to an eight-year prison term. He exhausted his available state remedies, and then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court. That court declined to issue the writ, and dismissed the petition. This appeal followed. We affirm.

The principal issues raised are whether appellant complied with 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d) and whether his guilty plea was entered freely, voluntarily, and with a full understanding of its consequences. Section 2254(d), in brief, provides that, in a federal court review of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, a state court determination of a factual issue “shall be presumed to be correct, unless the applicant shall establish or it shall otherwise appear” that one of eight enumerated exceptions has been met.

The state court treated appellant’s petition to vacate his sentence as an application for post-conviction relief, and held an evidentiary hearing. In denying relief, the court found:

The district court concluded that appellant did not allege facts which brought his…