Butler v. United States

387 F. Supp. 1375, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14353
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedJanuary 15, 1975
DocketCiv. A. No. 74-6
StatusPublished

This text of 387 F. Supp. 1375 (Butler v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Butler v. United States, 387 F. Supp. 1375, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14353 (D.R.I. 1975).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

PETTINE, Chief Judge.

Patrick Vincent Butler brings this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 attacking his conviction and sentence for a 1968 bank robbery under subsections (a) and (d) of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 which resulted in the imposition by this Court of three concurrent terms of twenty years each. The prisoner is presently incarcerated and in federal custody pursuant to those sentences and therefore has properly instituted the instant proceeding. 28 U.S.C. § 2255. See Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54, 88 S.Ct. 1549, 20 L.Ed.2d 426 (1968); United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205, 72 S.Ct. 263, 96 L.Ed. 232 (1952).

Before considering the claims presented herein, it may be appropriate to review the earlier proceedings which resulted in the petitioner’s present confinement. On January 29, 1968, a federally-insured bank located in Rhode Island was robbed by two armed men, one of whom remained in a getaway car. Within one month, a federal grand jury for the District of Rhode Island returned a “John Doe” indictment. On September 27, 1968, the indictment was amended to identify Patrick Vincent Butler as one of the “John Does” and charged him with three counts of bank robbery. As more fully appears in the margin, Count I of indictment number 7507 closely tracked the language of the second paragraph of 18 U.S.C. § [1377]*13772113(a); the language in Count II followed that of the first paragraph of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a); and Count III charged the offense outlined by subsection (d) of 18 U.S.C. § 2113.1

Petitioner was arraigned on the indictment on July 17, 1969 and brought to trial in September, 1969. In the interim his trial counsel advanced several grounds in support of motions to suppress identification testimony and to dismiss the indictment. These same issues were raised on appeal, United States v. Butler, 426 F.2d 1275 (1st Cir. 1970), and petitioner’s speedy trial claim was also the subject of a remand and further appeal, 434 F.2d 243 (1st Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 978, 91 S.Ct. 1207, 28 L.Ed.2d 328. At the trial, this Court instructed the jury that it should consider each count of the indictment separately and that it could return a verdict of guilty on each count. (Transcript pp. 664-675). The jury returned a guilty verdict on each count, and the Court sentenced the petitioner as described above.

[1378]*1378Petitioner now presses three separate claims, never before raised, in support of the instant action. First, he claims that the arrest warrant was “defective in that it failed to meet the requirements of Rule 4(b) Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.” The factual basis for such an assertion completely eludes the Court, and, needless to say, the petitioner has failed to establish that there was such a defect (the warrant having been amended to identify him by name), that the asserted defect was “an error of the character or magnitude cognizable under a writ of habeas corpus,” Hill v. United States, 368 U.S. 424, 428, 82 S.Ct. 468, 471, 7 L.Ed.2d 417 (1962), or to provide any excuse for his failure to raise the issue at trial or on appeal. Cf. Kaufman v. United States, 394 U.S. 217, 227 n. 8, 89 S.Ct. 1068, 22 L.Ed.2d 227 (1969).

Second, the petitioner claims that the indictment was defective in that Counts I and II, which he claims described but a single crime, could not be charged in the same indictment without twice placing the petitioner in jeopardy. Petitioner further claims the invalid double charge inflamed and prejudiced the jury against him. Although he does not challenge the conviction and sentence under Count III (charging a violation of 18 U. S.C. § 2113(d)), petitioner asserts that he could neither be charged nor convicted of both Counts I and II of the indictment. In support of his argument he cites, inter alia, O’Clair v. United States, 470 F.2d 1199 (1st Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 412 U.S. 921, 93 S.Ct. 2741, 37 L.Ed.2d 148.

A careful reading of the First Circuit opinion in O’Clair reveals that petitioner at once argues for too little and for too much. The petitioner in O’Clair brought an action under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to challenge his convictions and sentences under a two-count indictment which charged violations of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and (d). The petitioner had pleaded guilty to both counts and was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 15 years each. Following Green v. United States, 365 U.S. 301, 306, 81 S.Ct. 653, 5 L.Ed.2d 670 (1961), the district court set aside the sentence under Count I (§ 2113(a)), but let both convictions and the sentence for the § 2113(d) violation stand.

After a careful analysis of a long line of Supreme Court interpretations of the Bank Robbery Act (18 U.S.C. § 2113), the First Circuit concluded that subsection (a) of § 2113 described a lesser included offense of subsection (d) for which only one conviction could stand. The First Circuit observed that the Supreme Court in Prince v. United States, 352 U.S. 322, 77 S.Ct. 403, 1 L.Ed.2d 370 (1957), had similarly concluded that the “bank entry” provision of § 2113(a) [par. 2] merged into the completed robbery provision of that subsection [par. 1]. The First Circuit agreed with the Fifth Circuit, also writing in Prince v. United States, that:

“[W]hen one is charged with committing or attempting to commit an offense defined in (a) or (b), and also the aggravating acts defined in (d) in conjunction therewith, only one conviction will stand.”
Prince v. United States, 230 F.2d 568, 571 (5th Cir. 1956), rev’d, 352 U.S. 322, 77 S.Ct. 403, 1 L.Ed.2d 370 (1957), quoted in O’Clair, supra, 470 F.2d at 1202 (emphasis supplied in O’Clair).

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Related

United States v. Hayman
342 U.S. 205 (Supreme Court, 1952)
Prince v. United States
352 U.S. 322 (Supreme Court, 1957)
Green v. United States
365 U.S. 301 (Supreme Court, 1961)
Hill v. United States
368 U.S. 424 (Supreme Court, 1962)
Peyton v. Rowe
391 U.S. 54 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Kaufman v. United States
394 U.S. 217 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Rodriquez v. United States
395 U.S. 327 (Supreme Court, 1969)
United States v. On Lee
201 F.2d 722 (Second Circuit, 1953)
Ollie Otto Prince v. United States
230 F.2d 568 (Fifth Circuit, 1956)
Richard J. Dillane v. United States
350 F.2d 732 (D.C. Circuit, 1965)
Ronnie J. Everitt v. United States
353 F.2d 532 (Fifth Circuit, 1965)
Johnny Wilson Holland v. United States
384 F.2d 370 (Fifth Circuit, 1967)
United States v. Robert Bradwell
388 F.2d 619 (Second Circuit, 1968)
United States v. Richard Anthony Capaldo
402 F.2d 821 (Second Circuit, 1968)
Billie A. Bryant v. United States
417 F.2d 555 (D.C. Circuit, 1969)
United States v. Patrick Vincent Butler
426 F.2d 1275 (First Circuit, 1970)
United States v. Patrick Vincent Butler
434 F.2d 243 (First Circuit, 1970)
United States v. Ilario Zannino
468 F.2d 1299 (First Circuit, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
387 F. Supp. 1375, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14353, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/butler-v-united-states-rid-1975.