Memo from Fins to Chambers
Correspondence
November 7, 1985

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Brief Collection, LDF Court Filings. Warren v. Connor Brief for Appellants, 1964. 7f5bf884-c89a-ee11-be36-6045bdeb8873. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/159b1d86-b36f-4ddc-bf6c-8edf76d89618/warren-v-connor-brief-for-appellants. Accessed August 19, 2025.
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Ituitrii (ttnurl of Appeals F or th e F ifth Circuit No. 21,853 In th e J ames W arren, et al., Appellants, R ichard A. Connor, Sheriff, City Court of Savannah, et al., Appellees. on appeal from th e united states district court for th e SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA, SAVANNAH DIVISION BRIEF FOR APPELLANTS H oward M oore, J r . 859% Hunter Street, N.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30314 J ack Greenberg J ames M . N abrit, III Charles H. J ones 10 Columbus Circle New York, New York 10019 Attorneys for Appellants I N D E X PAGE Statement of the C ase........................................................ 1 Specification of Error ...................................................... 5 A r g u m e n t ................................................................................................ 6 Co n c l u s io n ............................................................................................. 11 A ppendix .................................................................................................. 13 T able of Cases Bell v. Maryland, 378 U. S. 226 .................................... 10 Bowen v. Johnston, 306 U. S. 1 9 ...................................... 7 Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U. S. 454 .............................. 10 Clark v. State, 219 Ga. 680, 135 S. E. 2d 270 (1964) .... 9 Cobb v. State, 218 Ga. 10, 126 S. E. 2d 231 (1961) ....... 8 Cornelius v. State, 193 Ga. 25, 17 S. E. 2d 156 (1941) 8 Cross v. Foote, 17 Ga. App. 802, 88 S. E. 594 (1916) 8 Davis v. Smith, 7 Ga. App. 196, 66 S. E. 401 (1909) .. 8 Durham v. State, 219 Ga. 830, 136 S. E. 2d 322 (1964) 9 Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391 .............................................. 7 Garner v. Louisiana, 368 U. S. 157 ............................... 10 Hamm v. Rock Hill, U. S. Sup. Ct., No. 2, Oct. Term 1964 ................................................................................... 10 Jones v. Cunningham, 371 U. S. 236 .............................. 6, 7 Lupper v. State, U. S. Sup. Ct., No. 5, Oct. Term 1964 10 11 PAGE McFarland v. Donaldson, 115 Ga. 567, 41 S. E. 1000 (1902) ............................................................................... 8 McKay v. Balkcom, 203 Ga. 790, 48 S. E. 2d 453 (1948) 8 Mack, et al. v. Connor, Sheriff, et al., not yet reported, Nos. 22,694-22,706, Snp. Ct. of Ga., Nov. 5, 1964 .... 9 Morris v. Peacock, 202 Ga. 524, 43 S. E. 2d 531 (1947) 9 Peterson v. City of Greenville, 373 U. S. 244 ............... 10 Sims v. Balkcom, 136 S. E. 2d 766 (1964) ....................... 8 Smith v. Milton, 149 Ga. 28, 98 S. E. 607 (1919) ....... 8 Stack v. Boyle, 342 U. S. 1 ................................................ 7 Taylor v. Taintor, 16 Wall. 366 ........................................ 7 Wallace v. Foster, 206 Ga. 561, 57 S. E. 2d 920 (1950) 8 Wells v. Pridgen, Warden, 154 Ga. 397, 114 S. E. 355 (1922) ......................................................................... 8 Whitus v. Balkcom, 299 F. 2d 844 (5th Cir. 1962), va cated and remanded for hearing on the merits, 370 U. S. 728 ......................................................................... 9 Wilcoxon v. Aldredge, 192 Ga. 634, 15 S. E. 2d 873 (1941) ........................................................................ 9 Williams v. State, 210 Ga. 665, 82 S. E. 2d 217, re manded, 349 U. S. 375, adhered to 211 Ga. 763, 88 S. E. 2d 376, cert, denied 350 U. S. 950 (1956) ....... 8 Federal and State Statutes Involved Civil Eights Act of 1964, Title II, 78 Stat. 241............... 10 Ga. Code Ann., Sec. 26-3005 .............................................. 2, 6 Ga. Code Ann., Sec. 50-1.................................................... 5, 7 28 U. S. C., Sec. 2254 ........................................................ 7,10 42 U. S. C., Sec. 1981 ........................................................ 3, 6 In the Huitrit States (Enurt nf Appeals F or th e F ieth Circuit No. 21,853 J ames W arren, et al., -v.— Appellants, R ichard A. C onnor, Sheriff, City Court of Savannah, et al., Appellees. ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA, SAVANNAH DIVISION BRIEF FOR APPELLANTS Statement of the Case This is an appeal from an order and judgment allowing the appellees’ motion to dismiss for failure to exhaust state remedies, denying the writ of habeas corpus, and remand ing appellants to custody, entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, on June 19, 1964 (R. 63, 64). Appellants are some twenty-eight youthful Negroes ar rested at restaurants, theatres, hotel and motels situated in the City of Savannah, Georgia during racial protest 2 demonstrations in the summer of 1963 (R. 17, 33, 48). Ap pellants were arrested and charged with violating the state’s trespass law (26-3005, Ga. Code Ann.) (App. 13). Appellants were tried on accusations in the City Court of Savannah, Georgia in the fall of 1963 and convicted. At the trial appellants attacked the constitutionality of the trespass statute upon its face and as applied to their con duct (R. 6, 16). Appellants were convicted and sentenced to pay fines or to serve prison terms (R. 4). Following conviction and sentencing, appellants through their former attorney, B. Clarence Mayfield, filed skeleton motions for new trials. Pursuant to the motion, a show cause order was allowed and put down for a hearing on a day certain (R. 5, 6). Appellants were enlarged upon supersedeas bond in an amount fixed by the court. R. Z. Lavender was approved by the clerk as surety (R. 5, 6). The motions for new trial were denied and, on May 17, 1964, the time in which an appeal could have been perfected from the denial of appellants’ motions for new trials ex pired. Richard A. Connor, Sheriff of the City Court of Savannah, gave appellants’ surety notice to surrender them on or before June 1, 1964 to begin service of sentence or to pay the amount of the supersedeas bond (R. 6). On June 4, 1964, all of the appellants, except Dumas, Crawford, Bolden, and Bonaparte, filed petitions for writs of habeas corpus (R. 14, 15). Dumas, Crawford, Bolden, and Bonaparte filed petitions on June 12, 1964 (R. 45). All the appellants, except Moore, Tukes, Smith, and Barziel, alleged that they were unconstitutionally restrained of their liberty by Richard A. Connor and R. Z. Lavender, surety (R. 5, 6, 30). 3 Moore, Tukes, Smith, and Barziel averred that they were illegally detained by Carl Griffin, Sheriff of Chatham County, pursuant to an unconstitutional conviction and sen tence (R. 14). Motions to be admitted to bail were filed on behalf of Moore, Tukes, Smith, and Barziel (R. 23, 24). The District Judge allowed the motion and admitted each of the movants to bail, conditioned upon their appearance to abide final determination of their petitions for writs of habeas corpus (R. 25). Appellant Randy Mack, who had been surrendered by his surety, filed a motion to add Carl Griffin, Sheriff of Chat ham County, as a party respondent and a motion to be ad mitted to bail. The Court below allowed each motion (R. 39-44). District Judge Frank Scarlett issued a show cause order in each case and set a hearing for June 12, 1964 (R. 12, 13, 22, 23, 38, 53, 54). Motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis was al lowed on behalf of each appellant, except James Warren (R. 26-28). In their verified petitions for writs of habeas corpus, appellants alleged that their conviction and sentence pro ceeded from a statute which was unconstitutional upon its face and that the trespass statute as applied to their con duct denied them the equal protection of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and abridged rights and privi leges guaranteed and secured by the First Amendment and Title 42, U. S. C., Sec. 1981 (R. 7, 10). Appellants alleged that they had “ neither intentionally nor deliberately forfeited [their] right to take an appeal from the order” overruling their motions for new trials (R. 6). They showed that the reason or reasons why their 4 attorney did not tile a timely appeal was unknown to them and that they believed that his failure to do so was wholly attributable to inadvertence (R. 6). On June 10, 1964, appellees, Connor and Griffin, tiled mo tions to dismiss together with a supporting memorandum. The grounds for their motions were that (1) the petition failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted; (2) appellants had not exhausted their State remedies; (3) the federal questions alleged were “ frivolous and un substantial” ; and (4) the alleged existence of adequate and independent State grounds for denying the relief sought (R. 54, 55). June 12, 1964, R. Z. Lavender, surety, filed a verified “Answer and Response” (R. 56). Lavender admitted his suretyship and that the surety bond was conditioned as alleged in paragraph three of the petition. The surety fur ther showed that he had surrendered appellant, Randy Mack, prior to service of the petitions for writs of habeas corpus and the show cause order (R. 56-59). On June 12, 1964, the District Court, pursuant to mo tion, consolidated the cases for trial. After hearing oral arguments on the motion to dismiss, the District Judge stated in open Court that he would sustain appellees’ mo tion to dismiss on the ground that appellants had failed to exhaust state remedies and directed appellees’ counsel to prepare an order, incorporating findings of fact and conclusions of law, dismissing the petitions on the stated ground. On June 22, 1964, the order was formally signed and judgment entered accordingly. The District Judge found and held that: . . . The exhaustion of state remedies is a jurisdic tional requirement in federal habeas corpus proceed 5 ings . . . The court finds that the [appellants] pres ently have available to them the state remedy of habeas corpus (Georgia Code 50-1). It is true, as urged by the [appellants], that habeas corpus does not lie as a substitute for appeal, writ of error, or other remedial procedure for the correction of errors or irregularities alleged to have been committed by a trial court. How ever, state habeas is an appropriate remedy when the trial court was without jurisdiction, or where it ex ceeded its jurisdiction in making the order, rendering the judgment, or passing the sentence by virtue of which the party is imprisoned, so that such order, judg ment, or sentence is not merely erroneous, but is abso lutely void (R. 61, 62). On June 26, 1964, appellants filed a motion to consolidate the cases on appeal, consolidated notice of appeal, and consolidated petition for issuance of certificate of probable cause (R. 64-76). Thereupon, the District Judge allowed the motion to consolidate and issued a certificate of prob able cause stating, inter alia, that: [appellants] have good cause for appeal . . . and that substantial questions of constitutional law are pre sented for determination on said appeal” (R. 72). The District Court stayed service of the sentence pend ing final determination of the appeal (R. 73). Specification of Error The District Court erred in dismissing the petitions on the ground that appellants had a presently available and effective remedy by state habeas corpus proceedings which must be exhausted as a prerequisite to federal habeas corpus relief. 6 A R G U M E N T The Court Below Erred in Ruling That Appellants Had an Available State Court Remedy Which Precluded the Grant of Federal Habeas Corpus. The 28 appellants filed petitions for habeas corpus in the District Court asserting that their convictions in the City Court of Savannah for violations of Ga. Code Ann., §26-3005 were in violation of their rights under the Consti tution of the United States.1 At the time of the filing of the petitions, appellants Randy Mack, Barziel, Tukes, Bonaparte and Smith had been taken into custody to serve sentences imposed by the City Court of Savannah. Sheriff Connor had demanded that the surety surrender the other appellants to serve their sentences. The district judge stayed the service of sentence or payment of fine and admitted appellants to bail.2 1 Among the issues which appellants sought to litigate were: (1) Whether 26-3005, Ga. Code Ann., violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment upon its face; (2) whether the trespass statute as applied to their attempt to end restaurant segregation constitutes significant state action which denies them equal protection of the law; (3) whether the statute as applied to their conduct abridges rights guaranteed to them by the First Amendment; and (4) whether the statute as applied to their conduct abridges their right to contract for the purchase of food and services upon the same basis as white citizens in violation of 42 U. S. C. 1981 (R. 7-10). 2 No question was raised below as to the sufficiency of appel lants’ “ custody” for purposes of federal habeas corpus. But those appellants not actually incarcerated were in custody of their surety who had been ordered to surrender them and thus were under “ restraints not shared by the public generally,” Jones v. Cunningham, 371 U. S. 236, 240. Indeed, their surety had un 7 The State moved to dismiss the petition for habeas corpus on several grounds, including a claim that “ the petition is brought prematurely because the Petitioners had not ex hausted their State remedies” (R. 55). Without holding an evidentiary hearing, the District Court granted the mo tions to dismiss each of the petitions, relying on the pro vision of 28 U. S. C., §2254 requiring exhaustion of state remedies. The trial judge deemed the exhaustion of state remedies “ a jurisdictional requirement in federal habeas corpus proceedings” (R. 61).3 The court went on to state that “ the Petitioners presently have available to them the state remedy of habeas corpus (Ga. Code 50-1).” The trial court’s ruling did not rest on the fact that petitioners had not taken appeals following their convictions in the state court and there was no holding that they deliberately had by-passed state appellate review, cf. Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 438-440. As the court below recognized, the exhaustion require ment relates to “presently available state remedies” (R. 61). This much is clear from Fay v. Noia, supra. But the court below thought that state habeas corpus was avail able to appellants in this case. Appellants urge that to the contrary the Georgia courts have given such a limited scope to the habeas corpus remedy that they would be unable questioned powers to rearrest and surrender them even without the sheriff’s demand. See Stack v. Boyle, 342 U. S. 1; Taylor v. Taintor, 16 Wall. 366, 371-72. Obviously, the surety’s power is even more arbitrary and summary than that of the parole officer in Jones v. Cunning ham, supra. 3 Appellants disagree with the trial court’s view of the exhaus tion requirement as jurisdictional. The Supreme Court recently wrote in Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 420, that “ the rule of exhaus tion ‘is not one defining power but one which relates to the ap propriate exercise of power.’ Bowen v. Johnston, 306 U. S. 19, 27.” 8 to obtain an adjudication of the federal constitutional ques tions they seek to litigate. In Georgia, habeas corpus is a fretfully slender reed upon which to hang a federal claim. The appellate courts of the State have for years limited habeas corpus to in stances where the trial “ court was without jurisdiction in the premises, or where it exceeded its jurisdiction in mak ing the order, rendering the judgment, or passing the sen tence by virtue of which the party is imprisoned, so that such order, judgment or sentence is not merely erroneous, but absolutely void.” Wells v. Pridgen, Warden, 154 Ga. 397, 114 S. E. 355, 356 (1922); McFarland v. Donaldson, 115 Ga. 567, 41 S. E. 1000 (1902); Smith v. Milton, 149 Ga. 28, 98 S. E. 607 (1919); McKay v. Balkcom, 203 Ga. 790, 48 S. E. 2d 453 (1948); Wallace v. Foster, 206 Ga. 561, 57 S. E. 2d 920 (1950); Cobb v. State, 218 Ga. 10, 126 S. E. 2d 231 (1961); Davis v. Smith, 7 Ga. App. 196, 66 S. E. 401 (1909); Cross v. Foote, 17 Ga. App. 802, 88 S. E. 594 (1916). Under Georgia law, the denial of a constitutional right must not be merely erroneous but “ such as to deprive the court of jurisdiction.” Wells v. Pridgen, Warden, supra. Thus, state habeas corpus is not an appropriate remedy to review “ alleged errors in holding one commitment hear- ing when the accused was without counsel” or “ discrimina tion in making up the jury boxes in the absence of a timely challenge to the jury.” Sims v. Balkcom, 136 S. E. 2d 766, 768 (1964), citing Cornelius v. State, 193 Ga. 25, 31, 17 S. E. 2d 156 (1941); Williams v. State, 210 Ga, 665, 667, 82 S. E. 2d 217, remanded, 349 U. S. 375, adhered to 211 Ga. 763, 88 S. E. 2d 376, cert, denied, 350 U. S. 950 (1956); Cobb v. State, supra. 9 This rule has been held “ equally applicable” to bar re view on habeas corpus a claim that a confession was in voluntary. Wilcoxon v. Aldredge, 192 Ga. 634, 15 S. E. 2d 873, 876 (1941); Morris v. Peacock, 202 Ga. 524, 43 S. E. 2d 531, 534 (1947). In a recent case where the District Court for the South ern District of Georgia dismissed a habeas corpus petition on the ground that petitioner should first seek state habeas corpus, the United States Supreme Court reversed. Whitus v. Balkcom, 299 F. 2d 844 (5th Cir. 1962), vacated and re manded for hearing on the merits, 370 U. S. 728. Thus, the Supreme Court has summarily rejected a ruling similar to that in this case. Even if the Georgia courts were willing to consider the constitutional issues raised by appellants here on a habeas corpus proceeding that remedy would not be effective. This is plainly so because the Georgia Supreme Court has, in other cases arising out of sit-in demonstrations in Savan nah and elsewhere, repeatedly rejected constitutional claims like those made here. See Clark v. State, 219 Ga. 680, 135 S. E. 2d 270 (1964); Durham v. State, 219 Ga, 830, 136 S. E. 2d 322 (1964); Mack, et at. v. Connor, Sheriff, et al., not yet reported, Nos. 22,694-22,706, Sup. Ct. of Ga., Nov. 5, 1964. In the last mentioned case, which was a habeas corpus proceeding, the procedural issues as to the propriety of habeas corpus were not raised or discussed and the court was content merely to reject the constitutional claims by citation of its prior decisions in Clark v. State, supra, and Durham v. State, supra. Thus, it is evident that it would be futile for these appellants to bring identical claims be fore the Georgia courts in habeas corpus proceedings, even if the state courts may entertain them because no proce dural objection is made. 10 Title 28, U. S. C., §2254 does not require exhaustion where there are “ circumstances rendering [state corrective] . . . processes ineffective to protect the rights of the prisoners.” Obviously, the Georgia habeas corpus remedy is ineffective in the present circumstances since the state courts con sistently have decided these constitutional issues contrary to appellants’ contentions. It should be observed that the underlying federal consti tutional issues which appellants seek to litigate are indeed substantial. These questions have been before the United States Supreme Court in a variety of cases during the past several terms of Court. As of June 1964, three Justices of the Supreme Court agreed with appellants’ claim, three disagreed, and three took no position. Bell v. Maryland, 378 U. S. 226.4 The issue was again argued before the United States Supreme Court at the beginning of the October 1964 Term {Hamm v. Rock Hill, No. 2; Lupper v. Arkansas, No. 5). An additional issue argued in the last mentioned cases is also latent in these cases, namely, whether Title II of the Civil Eights Act of 1964 abates the prosecutions even though the events took place before passage of the Act. Cf. Bell v. Maryland, supra. The judgment below in these cases was entered before passage of the Civil Rights Act and thus the issue was not raised below. But if the cases are remanded for a hearing appellants will seek leave to amend the petition to add this ground. 4 Some of the other cases in which the underlying issue as to the use of state trespass prosecutions to enforce racial segregation has been argued to the Supreme Court are Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U. S. 454; Garner v. Louisiana, 368 U. S. 157; Peterson v. City of Greensville, 373 U. S. 244. 11 CONCLUSION Wherefore, for the reasons hereinbefore stated, it is re spectfully submitted that the Order and Judgment of the District Court allowing appellees’ motion to dismiss, de nying the petition for writ of habeas corpus, and remanding appellants to custody be reversed, vacated, and set aside with directions to the District Court to conduct a full evi dentiary hearing and with such other directions as to this Court appear to be just and comformable to the usages and principles of law and equity. Respectfully submitted, H oward M oore, J r. 859% Hunter Street, N.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30314 J ack Greenberg J ames M. N abrit, III Charles H. J ones 10 Columbus Circle New York, New York 10019 Attorneys for Appellants 13 APPENDIX Statutes Ga. Code Ann., Sec. 50-101: 50-101. Who may sue out writ.—Any person re strained of Ms liberty under any pretext whatever, or any person alleging that another, in whom for any cause he is interested, is restrained of his liberty or kept illegally from the custody of the applicant, may sue out a writ of habeas corpus to inquire into the legality of such restraint. Ga. Code Ann., Sec. 27-904: 27-904. (960 P. C.) Bail surrendering principal; costs; death of principal.—Bail may surrender their principal in vacation to the sheriff, or in open court, in discharge of themselves from liability, and such privilege shall continue to the last day of the term, without liability for costs for a forfeiture of the bond. After forfeiture, and before final judgment, the bail may, at any time surrender their principal, upon pay ment of all costs accruing up to that time. The death of the principal at any time before final judgment shall be equivalent to a surrender, and the court shall, after final judgment, relieve the sureties of the penalty of the bond upon surrender of the principal and payment of the costs. (Acts 1943, p. 282.) Ga. Code Ann., Sec. 26-3005: 26-3005. Refusal to leave premises of another when ordered to do so by owner or person in charge.—It shall be unlawful for any person, who is on the prem ises of another, to refuse and fail to leave said premises 14 when requested to do so by the owner or any person in charge of said premises or the agent or employee of such owner or such person in charge. Any person vio lating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished as for a misdemeanor. (Acts 1960, p. 142.) 15 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on ........... day of November, 1964, two copies of the foregoing brief were served upon Honor able Eugene Cook, Attorney General of the State of Georgia, State Judicial Building, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, by United States mail, air mail, postage prepaid. Attorney for Appellants 38