United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Rice v. Olson, 324 U.S. 786 (1945)

Rice v. Olson

No. 391

Argued February 1, 1945

Decided April 23, 1945

324 U.S. 786

Syllabus

Petitioner, an Indian under a state court sentence of imprisonment for one to seven years upon his plea of guilty to a charge of burglary, petitioned a state court for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he had been deprived of due process of law in that the trial court failed to advise him of his constitutional rights to counsel and to call witnesses; that he had not waived those rights by word or action, and that the conviction was void because the alleged crime was committed on an Indian Reservation which was within exclusive federal jurisdiction.

Held:

1. The allegations of the petition showed a prima facie violation of petitioner's right to counsel, and he was entitled to a hearing upon them. Pp. 788, 791.

2. By his plea of guilty, petitioner had not waived his constitutional right to counsel. P. 324 U. S. 788.

3. The state court having placed its judgment of dismissal squarely on the absence of merit in the petition, this Court cannot conclude that the petition failed to satisfy procedural requirements. P. 324 U. S. 792.

144 Neb. 547, 14 N.W.2d 850, reversed.

Certiorari, 323 U.S. 696, to review a judgment affirming the dismissal of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.