Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Reports of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

  Download original PDF

Application of Matagolai, Re [1972] TTLawRp 33; 6 TTR 58 (1 September 1972)

6 TTR 58

In the Matter of the Application of

VICENTE R. MATAGOLAI

For a Writ of Habeas Corpus

Civil Action No. 1052
Trial Division of the High Court
Mariana Islands District

September 1, 1972

Petition for habeas corpus. The Trial Division of the High Court, D. Kelly Turner, Associate Justice, held that victim could make in-court identification of accused where she had had only a rear view of him at time of offense and had made no pre-trial identification.

1. Habeas Corpus - Availability of Writ

Determination of a prisoner's guilt is not a function of habeas corpus.

2. Habeas Corpus - Jurisdictional Error

Habeas corpus reaches only jurisdictional error, and does not reach procedural error.

3. Constitutional Law - Due Process - Remedies for Deprivation

If conviction was a nullity because it was based on in-court identification which denied due process, the most petitioner for habeas corpus could expect would be a new trial, and he would not be entitled to be set free.

4. Criminal Law - In-Court Identification - Harmless Error

If conviction depended upon evidence other than in-court identification which allegedly violated due process, the admission of the identification was harmless procedural error at most, not a denial of due process.

5. Habeas Corpus - Availability of Writ

Habeas corpus is not a substitute for appeal to search for procedural error.

6. Appeal and Error - Late Appeal

Late appeal from conviction would not be granted petitioner for habeas corpus where no plain error was demonstrated and there was, no appriate authorized procedure for allowing late appeals where plain error is demonstrated; and the only available appeal would be from denial of habeas corpus relief.

7. Evidence - Weight

The weight or probative value of evidence is for the trier of fact.

8. Appeal and Error - Findings and Conclusions -- Weight

Habeas corpus petitioner could not prevail on claim he was entitled to a new trial because in-court identification alleged to be in violation of due process was also allegedly almost the exclusive basis for conviction where trial judge specifically stated basis for conviction and the statement was contrary to petitioner's assertion.

9. Criminal Law - In-Court Identification - Weight

The weight to be given in-court identification is for trier of fact, is procedural, and does not go to the question of fair trial embodied in due process.

10. Criminal Law - In-Court Identification - Propriety

Accused could be identified in court while sitting at defense counsel's table.

11. Constitutional Law - Compelling Court Attendance

It is not a denial of constitutional privileges to compel an accused to appear in court.

12. Criminal Law - In-Court Identification - Propriety

It was not a denial of due process for victim to identify accused in court where her only view of him at the time of the offense was from the rear;

13. Criminal Law - In-Court Identification - Propriety

It was not a denial of due process for victim to identify accused in court without making a pre-trial identification.

14. Constitutional Law - Due Process -- Appeals

An appeal is not an essential of due process.

15. Constitutional Law - Right to Counsel - Appeals

A defendant is not entitled as a matter of right to assistance of counsel to prosecute an appeal.

16. Appeal and Error - Adequacy of Counsel

Court would reject habeas corpus petitioner's claim that counsel was incompetent for failure to file an appeal and that petitioner was thus denied due process, where counsel testified that in his opinion nothing in the trial sustained grounds for an appeal and that any appeal without new matter would be frivolous.

17. Appeal and Error - Presumptions -- Opportunity to Appeal

The law presumes knowledge of opportunity to appeal.

18. Habeas Corpus -- Due Process -- Burden of Proof

Petitioner for habeas corpus had burden of proving that he was denied due process of law because he was denied adequate and effective assistance of counsel.

19. Appeal and Error - Presumptions - Opportunity to Appeal

Denial of knowledge of opportunity to appeal, made by person with ten convictions and jail sentences, was not sufficiently convincing to overcome presumption of knowledge.

TURNER, Associate Justice

Petitioner, through counsel, applied for and was granted writ of habeas corpus to bring him before the court for hearing to show cause as to the propriety of his imprisonment. The petitioner was convicted of the offenses of burglary and rape and was sentenced May 5, 1972, to serve concurrent terms of two and five years, respectively.

At the trial, petitioner was represented by the Public Defender and by the Public Defender's Representative, a Micronesian trial assistant, a fact especially noted because of its significance developed at the hearing on the writ. Within a week after time for appeal from the conviction had expired, counsel from Micronesian Legal Services Corporation, now representing petitioner, ordered transcript of the trial record and eventually filed the application for the writ. As noted later, this timing is significant.

The court heard testimony of witnesses called by the petitioner, including his former counsel, the Public Defender, and considered extensive memoranda submitted by counsel. From the testimony adduced at the hearing and from the transcript of the trial evidence, we are convinced the petitioner was not denied due process of law and that the writ of habeas corpus heretofore issued on ex parte application must be set aside and dismissed.

Petitioner contended he was denied due process of law in that:

(1) His in-court identification by the complaining witness "was unduly, unfairly and unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification", and

(2) "His trial counsel failed to inform him of his right of appeal" and did not appeal "thereby depriving him of the effective legal assistance" essential to due process of law.

Before taking each of the two propositions, we first consider the relatively minor point of the relief asked in the alternative that: (1) petitioner's conviction be declared void and that he be set free; (2) he be granted a new trial which would exclude identification testimony by the complaining witness; and (3) he now be permitted to appeal some three months after time for appeal has expired. The first relief sought would require substitution of our opinion as to petitioner's guilt or innocence, without in-court identification, for the determination of the trial judge.

[1, 2] Determination of the guilt or innocence of the prisoner is not the function of habeas corpus. Figir v. Trust Territory, 4 TTR 368, 371. Habeas corpus reaches only jurisdictional error and not procedural error. Purako v. Efou, 1 TTR 236, 240.

[3-5] If the judgment of conviction was a nullity because the defendant was denied due process because he was identified as the rapist by the victim in court, the most he could expect would be a new trial with the identification testimony eliminated. If, however, his conviction depended upon evidence other than identification testimony (and the trial court so held) , the most that could be said about the admission of the identification testimony was that it was harmless error in procedure and not denial of due process. Habeas corpus is not a substitute for appeal to search for procedural error. Chapman v. State of California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S. Ct. 824.

[6] The Federal courts have an authorized procedure to permit late appeal by directing that the sentence be vacated and the matter remanded for imposition of new sentence with time to appeal running from the sentence. This is not done, however, unless there is a showing of "plain error". Fennel v. United States, 339 F.2d 920; Mitchell v. United States, 254 F.2d 954. Having failed to demonstrate "plain error" and there being no appropriate authorized procedure, we will not further consider granting an opportunity for appeal from the criminal conviction. The only appeal available, therefore, must be from this denial of habeas corpus relief.

[7, 8] Petitioner also argues "since his conviction is almost exclusively based on this constitutionally infirm identification", he should be granted a new trial. The weight or probative value of evidence is for the trial judge. The judge in this case stated for the record what he based the conviction upon. It is contrary to petitioner's argumentative assumption. The identification made by a witness was discussed in Trust Territory v. Ngiraitpang, 5 TTR 282, another rape case in which a courtroom identification was objected to by the defense. References to principles there stated will shorten this opinion.

In the present case the trial judge demonstrated that in his mind the identification in court was neither "impermissibly suggestive" nor was it conclusive of the guilt of petitioner. The court said at the conclusion of the trial:

"The possibility that there was a measure of suggestion by reason of the place in which she saw him consequently might well not be sufficient, to stand alone as identification, but certainly it does have value in corroboration with the other circumstances, which have put the accused in this courtroom." (Tr. 82)

The other circumstances which "put the accused into this courtroom" were amply demonstrated in the trial transcript. With or without the identification testimony, habeas corpus is not the vehicle to test the adequacy of the evidence of guilt.

This identification was made only in the court from the witness stand. There was no pre-trial lineup, confrontation or photograph. The courtroom confrontation, says petitioner, "was unnecessarily and improperly suggestive to the complainant that he was the guilty party."

The same argument was employed in United States v. King, 433 F.2d 937:

". . . appellant argues that the courtroom identification by Witness Sanguinetti and witness Nunn occurred under prejudicial conditions because he was the only Negro in the courtroom."

[9] The Federal court held the weight to be given an identification under such circumstances was for the jury - or for the court without a jury. The discretion granted is procedural. It does not go to the question of "fair trial" embodied in due process of law.

The circumstances of the identification in the present case are even more compelling than in King. Here the accused was not the only man of his race in the courtroom. He sat at defense counsel's table with another Micronesian, the Public Defender's Representative. Was it "impermissibly suggestive" for the witness to pick one of two Micronesians sitting at counsel's table in the courtroom? One of the two she had seen at the time of the assault upon her. The other one, for all the trial record shows, she had never seen before.

She identified the accused with the statement (Tr. 20):

"This is the young man; I can tell by the back of his head. I never saw his face but I saw the back of his head as he left my house . . . ."

The witness was searchingly cross-examined as to her identification of the defendant by the Public Defender (Tr. 27):

[10] By a theory of "impermissibly suggestive" identification as a denial of due process of law, petitioner insists he may not be identified in court while sitting at defense counsel's table. We reject the argument. All criminal defendants, from time immemorial, have been identified in court and are set free if not identified and connected with the crime.

What counsel suggests is that the complainant - the victim - of the rape should be forbidden from looking at the accused on trial and comparing his features (in this case the shape and size of his head ) with the memory of her assailant's features. A similar argument was rejected by Justice Holmes in Holt v. United States, 218 U.S. 245, 31 S.Ct. 2, 6:

"The objection in principle would forbid a jury to look at a prisoner and compare his features with a photograph in proof."

[11] It is not a denial of constitutional privileges to compel a prisoner to appear in court. When there, he is subject to identification by a trial witness.

Such identification, resting upon an "independent origin" and not the fruit of a tainted pre-trial confrontation is not a denial of due process. Schmerber v. State of California, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S.Ct. 1 826; Trust Territory v. Ngiraitpang, supra.

Petitioner's objection to the identification procedure in this case is that there was not a pre-trial lineup, which is, of course, completely contrary to the cases on identification on which petitioner relies. The three Supreme Court decisions which established the due process rule relating to "impermissibly suggestive" identification procedures related to pre-trial identifications, which assertedly tainted the in-court trial identification. In this present case, petitioner says there should have been a pre-trial lineup, thereby avoiding "serious doubt" as to the propriety of the in -court identification.