United States v. Tucker

Mr. Justice Stewart delivered the opinion of the Court.

In 1953 the respondent, Forrest S. Tucker, was brought to trial in a federal district court in California upon a charge of armed bank robbery. He pleaded not guilty. Four female employees of the bank were called as wit [*444] nesses for the prosecution, and they identified the respondent as the robber. He testified in his own behalf, denying participation in the robbery and offering an alibi defense. To impeach the credibility of his testimony, the prosecution was permitted on cross-examination to ask him whether he had previously been convicted of any felonies. He acknowledged three previous felony convictions, one in Florida in 1938, another in Louisiana in 1946, and a third in Florida in 1950. At the conclusion of the trial the jury returned a verdict of guilty. In the ensuing sentencing proceeding the District Judge conducted an inquiry into the respondent’s background, and, the record shows, gave explicit attention to the three previous felony convictions the respondent had acknowledged.[1] The judge then sentenced him to serve 25 years in prison — the maximum term authorized by the applicable federal statute, 18 U. S. C. § 2113(d).

Several years later it was conclusively determined that the respondent’s 1938 conviction in Florida and his 1946 [*445] conviction in Louisiana were constitutionally invalid. This determination was made by the Superior Court of Alameda County, California, upon that court’s finding in a collateral proceeding that those convictions had resulted from proceedings in which the respondent had been unrepresented by counsel, and that he had been “neither advised of his right to legal assistance nor did he intelligently and understandingly waive this right to the assistance of counsel.” [2]