Gayes v. New York (332 U.S. 145)/Opinion of the Court

This is another case in which release is sought from confinement under a sentence by a State court following a plea of guilty, on a claim of a denial of due process of law through want of benefit of counsel.

The circumstances are these. On July 15, 1938, Gayes, then a lad of 16, was arraigned in the County Court of Monroe County, New York, upon an indictment charging burglary in the third degree and petty larceny. According to the record of conviction, he was asked, in accordance with the requirement of § 308 of the New York Code of Criminal Procedure, whether 'he desired the aid of counsel,' and he answered 'No.' Imposition of sentence was postponed to July 28. When on that day Gayes appeared for judgment, he was asked, again according to the requirements of New York law, whether 'he had any legal cause to show, why judgment should not be pronounced against him.' New York Code of Criminal Procedure, § 480. And 'No sufficient cause appearing,' the record continues, Gayes was committed to a New York State Vocational School to be dealt with there according to law. It appears from the facts before us that Gayes did not stay at this correctional institution as long as New York law would have authorized his detention. See New York Penal Law, Consol.Laws, c. 40, §§ 2184-a and 2189, in connection with § 407. For on October 14, 1941, he pleaded guilty, in the County Court of Schenectady, New York, to a new charge of burglary in the third degree. The record of this latter proceeding does not indicate whether this time he was or was not represented by counsel. But no claim is made that this plea of guilty, or the sentence under it, has any infirmity Penal Law, Consol.Laws, c. 40, §§ 2184-a is that he was sentenced as a second offender by the inclusion of the improper sentence to the vocational school in 1938.

In accordance with New York procedure, Gayes, pro se, filed in the County Court of Monroe County, New York, an application to vacate the judgment rendered against him in that court on July 28, 1938. He claimed that in the proceedings which led to that judgment he had not been informed of his 'Constitutional Rights of Assistance of Counsel,' that he 'could not have understood his rights to Counsel' and that 'youths of the age of 16 years cannot Intelligently and Competently waive their rights.' Since, according to this claim, the first sentence was void, he challenged the validity of the sentence in 1941 because the length of the second sentence was partly based upon the 1938 conviction.

Upon this record, the county court denied the motion without opinion. As New York law then stood, no review could there be had of this determination. See People v. Gersewitz, 294 N.Y. 163, 61 N.E.2d 427. This made the county court the highest court of the State of New York for purposes of our review. Canizio v. New York, 327 U.S. 82, 85, 66 S.Ct. 452, 453, 90 L.Ed. 545. But see Chapter 706 of the New York Laws of 1947, amending Code Cr.Proc. § 517. We brought the case here, 329 U.S. 710, 67 S.Ct. 365, as one of a series, for further consideration of the circumstances under which the requirements of due process imply a duty to supply counsel to defendants in State prosecutions.

The guiding principles bearing on the general problem have been set forth in the opinion in Foster v. Illinois, 332 U.S. 134, 67 S.Ct. 1716, just decided. Insofar as the facts of this case present a particular variant, they are controlled by our decision in Canizio v. New York, supra. We there held that whatever doubts may arise from the circumstances of a plea of guilty, if, before sentence is imposed, the opportunities required by the Constitution for meeting the legal implications of the plea are satisfied, the sentence must stand. And so, the questions that may be raised regarding the circumstances attending the imposition of Gayes' commitment to the vocational institution in 1938 are not now open. Gayes is complaining of his sentence following his plea of guilty in 1941. What he wants is to be relieved of his imprisonment under that sentence. That sentence, to be sure, partly took into account his earlier sentence in 1938. But upon his subsequent sentence, as a second offender, in 1941, he had full opportunity, so far as appears, to contest whatever infirmity he may have claimed in the earlier sentence when the fact of that sentence was included in the sentence which he is now serving. Since the process leading up to the second sentence is not challenged he cannot now, so far as the United States Constitution is concerned, by a flank attack, challenge the sentence of 1938.

Judgment affirmed.

Mr. Justice BURTON concurs in the result.

Mr. Justice RUTLEDGE, with whom Mr. Justice BLACK, Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, and Mr. Justice MURPHY concur, dissenting.