David L. Adams v. R.S. Peterson, Superintendent of O.S.C.I.

939 F.2d 1369 David L. ADAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. R.S. PETERSON, Superintendent of O.S.C.I., Respondent-Appellee. No. 87-4191. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted June 29, 1989. Decided July 30, 1991. Opinion Ordered Withdrawn March 27, 1992. Stephen R. Sady, Chief Deputy Federal Public Defender, Portland, Or., for petitioner-appellant. Rives Kistler, Asst. Atty. Gen., Salem, Or., for respondent-appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. Before FERGUSON, BRUNETTI and O'SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judges. O'SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge: 1 David Adams appeals from the district court's dismissal of his petition for habeas corpus. Adams claims that his Oregon convictions for burglary, rape, and sodomy violated his right to due process of law because a state court judge entered judgment on stipulated facts and failed to advise him on the record of the legal consequences of the stipulation. We now affirm. 2 * In November 1981, Adams, who was seventeen-years-old at the time, was indicted in the Lane County Circuit Court on charges of first-degree rape, sodomy, and burglary of a female schoolteacher. Adams agreed to stipulate…

dissenting:

As a 17-year-old, David Llewellyn Adams at the time of his arrest and throughout the state court proceedings was subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of juvenile court. Yet, according to the record before this court, he was incarcerated in an adult jail and tried in adult court without any hearing to justify adult court jurisdiction. Once in adult court, Adams signed a de facto guilty plea, presented to him as a “stipulation of facts.” That plea was accepted by the Oregon court without any of the admonitions required by Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238 , 89 S.Ct. 1709 , 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969). The Oregon judge, fully aware of the boy’s age, then imposed a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, 20 years without possibility of parole. Every reviewing court, including the majority of this panel, has upheld this travesty, ignoring the exclusive jurisdiction of the juvenile court and mischaracterizing the guilty plea as a “stipulation of facts.” I dissent.

I. The State Court Proceedings

Mr. Adams’ state trial attorney, in simple but stark words, summed up his observations about Mr. Adams and his state court proceedings this way:

Adams was charged in state court with…

David Adams appeals from the district court’s dismissal of his petition for habeas corpus. Adams claims that his Oregon convictions for burglary, rape, and sodomy violated his right to due process of law because a state court judge entered judgment on stipulated facts and failed to advise him on the record of the legal consequences of the stipulation. We now affirm.

I

In November 1981, Adams, who was seventeen-years-old at the time, was indicted in the Lane County Circuit Court on charges of first-degree rape, sodomy, and burglary of a female schoolteacher. Adams agreed to stipulate to certain facts at trial rather than to proceed through the more usual presentations of evidence by both the prosecution and the defense. Adams so agreed on the advice of his attorney, who indicated that Adams’s prior juvenile record, along with the nature and circumstances of his crime, might lead to a harsher sentence if he was convicted following an extended trial. In addition, in return for Adams’s agreeing to a stipulated-facts trial, the state agreed to dismiss two other indictments then pending against him.

Adams repeatedly told his attorney that he wanted to testify. On three separate…