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41 Ala. App. 442

137 So.2d 755

Ex Parte Argo

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided October 17, 1961

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1961-10-17

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"After Delevie's appointed counsel, John M. Gruenewald, had filed his brief raising the three issues we have just addressed, Delevie, who had been declared indigent, hired his own attorney, Thomas E. Haigh, who was given additional time to file his brief. The only issue raised in Haigh's brief was that Gruenewald failed to provide constitutionally effective assistance of counsel. Attorney Gruenewald has earned a reputation before this Court as an aggressive and effective advocate, zealously guarding the rights of his clients. "Haigh's brief contains Delevie's affidavit. Although it is not a part of the record, that verified statement contains serious and libelous allegations against appointed counsel. Delevie also asserts that appointed counsel was not present when he was arraigned. "The allegations in Haigh's brief are those commonly seen in a petition for writ of error coram nobis usually filed years after the conviction and long after memories have dimmed and records lost. They represent accusations which appointed counsel has not had the opportunity. to answer. Because of the nature of those allegations and in an attempt to settle this issue as soon as possible, we remand this cause to the circuit court with directions that an evidentiary hearing be held on the issue of the competency of appointed counsel. The trial court is also directed to make a determination of Delevie's indigency. The trial court shall make written findings of fact on both these issues and forward th”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Thompson v. State

Relies on Johnson v. Williams · Ex Parte Taylor · Ex Parte Gammon

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1961-10-17

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently May 1990

1 federal appellate · 13 state decisions

801961197019801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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HARWOOD, Presiding Judge.

¶1Jimmy Argo has filed a petition in this court for leave to petition the Circuit Court of Jefferson County for a Writ of Error Coram Nobis.

¶2Argo has heretofore been convicted in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County of grand larceny, and of receiving stolen property, knowing the same to have been stolen, etc. From this judgment of guilt Argo appealed to this court, and the judgment was affirmed on May 31, 1960 without an opinion.

¶3In his petition filed in this court Argo asserts (a) that he was forced into trial in the absence of competent legal counsel whom he had retained for his defense, (b) that he was refused continuance in order that he might procure the attendance of his retained counsel at commencement of trial, and (c) that the judgment of the court did not correctly show the facts in that .it recites that when the case was called for trial on the 16th day of March 1960, at 9 A.M., the defendant’s attorney not being present some 50 minutes thereafter the court appointed a duly licensed and practicing attorney of Jefferson County to represent the defendant and that thereafter trial was had on the 17th day of March 1960, and on that day at 2:20 P.M., the .attorney theretofore retained by the petitioner appeared and *444joined in the defense to the conclusion of the trial, whereas, the petitioner alleges that in truth and in fact the court did not appoint him an attorney until the 17th day of March 1960, and that he was put upon trial a few minutes thereafter, and that the petitioner talked to the court appointed attorney for only about five minutes prior to the beginning of the trial.

¶4The Attorney General has filed a motion to dismiss this petition for leave to file a petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis.

¶5The motion to dismiss is well founded and will be granted.

¶6It is to be noted that while the court appointed attorney represented the petitioner during his trial in the Circuit Court, the petitioner himself asserts that his retained counsel appeared after the trial had been in progress, and presumably participated in the defense from then to the conclusion of the proceedings.

¶7Thereafter the appellant perfected his appeal to this court and the judgment of the Circuit Court was duly affirmed.

¶8If this petitioner had just complaint in respect to the matters which he asserts as grounds in his present petition, his remedy was by a motion for a new trial on that ground. A denial of such a motion for a new trial was subject to review on appeal. Since a denial of a motion for a new trial is reviewable by appeal, the matters now set forth by this appellant, that is, that he was not granted a continuance in order to obtain the presence of the retained counsel, cannot be made the basis of a Writ of Error Coram Nobis.

¶9 It is to be noted that the petitioner does not assert that his representation by the court appointed counsel, or by the court appointed counsel and his own retained counsel who put in a tardy appearance was inadequate. Even had the petitioner asserted inadequacy of counsel, such ground would have been insufficient for the issuance of the writ he now seeks. Ex parte Gammon, 255 Ala. 502, 52 So.2d 369. Nor is his assertion that he was only allowed five minutes time to confer with his court appointed counsel any basis for the issuance of a writ in that, an assertion of insufficient time to prepare a defense is not an allowable basis for issuance of a Writ of Error Coram Nobis. Johnson v. Williams, 244 Ala. 391, 13 So.2d 683.

¶10The petition filed in this court is-also faulty in failing to assert that the petitioner has a valid defense, Ex parte Taylor, 249 Ala. 667, 32 So.2d 659, nor does it show any facts that would, if established in his favor, produce a result different from that which attained in his original trial. Ex parte Powell, 39 Ala.App. 423, 102 So.2d' 923.

¶11In our opinion there are other insufficiencies in the petition which would compel our denial thereof. However, in the interest of brevity we will not discuss these additional insufficiencies.

¶12Petition dismissed.

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