Clark v. Surprenant

94 F.2d 969, 1938 U.S. App. LEXIS 4557
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 21, 1938
Docket8552
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 94 F.2d 969 (Clark v. Surprenant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Surprenant, 94 F.2d 969, 1938 U.S. App. LEXIS 4557 (9th Cir. 1938).

Opinions

GARRECHT, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal taken by the United States Marshal from an order of the District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division, discharging George S. Surprenant, Jr., on a writ of habeas corpus.

The facts as they' appear from the record are substantially as follows:

On his plea of guilty, appellee was sentenced by the United States District Court for the Southern District of California to [970]*970■serve a term of 15 months in the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island, Wash.

Under the provisions of 18 U.S.C.A. § 710, a prisoner in a federal penitentiary, by reason of his good béhavior, is entitled to a deduction of six days from his term for each month of his sentence. By operation of the above statute, appellee was entitled to a total of ninety days deduction from his .term of sentence and, in accordance therewith, appellee was released on April 15, 1936, having served his fifteen months’ sentence, less credits for good conduct which had been allowed. In any event his term would have expired on July 14, 1936.

Appellee was instructed to go to Cleveland, Ohio, and report to one Patrick Grady, his father-in-law, who was designated and appointed by the United States Parole Board as appellee’s parole adviser. Appellee was to remain in the Northern District of Ohio and was not to leave said District, without consent of his said adviser.

On July 5, 1936, appellee, with the consent of his parole adviser, left Cleveland and came to California.

On July 13, 1936, a few hours before appellee’s service of sentence would have been complete, a member of the United States Board of Parole in Washington, D. C., issued a warrant for the arrest and return of appellee to McNeil Island Penitentiary for alleged viplation of the conditions of his release. This warrant was not received by Robert E. Clark, United States Marshal for the Southern District of California, appellant herein, until August 29, 1936, about a month and a half after the end of the term of sentence. On that day appellee was taken into custody at Los Angeles, Cal. On the same day, appellee, by his father, George S. Surprenant, Sr., petitioned the United States District Court for, and obtained therefrom, a writ of habeas corpus returnable September 8, 1936.

Appellant in his return to the writ merely showed that he was holding appellee •under the said warrant issued July 13, 1936, which recited that appellee was sentenced to serve fifteen months and had been released conditionally from the United States Penitentiary, McNeil Island, Wash., on the 15th day of April, 1936; that the member of the Board issuing the warrant had been presented with reliable information that the prisoner named -in the warrant had violated the conditions of his release and directing his return to the institution designated.

As stated, this warrant was not received by the appellant Marshal until August 29, 1936.

At the hearing George S. Surprenant, Sr., testified that he was the father of appellee and that he was acquainted with Patrick Grady, the parole adviser of his son, who lived in Cleveland, Ohio, that in the early part of 1936 he had talked to Mr. Grady concerning his son’s remaining in the Northern District of Ohio or returning to California. Later a communication was received from appellee asking that funds be sent him so .that he could stay at a hotel until July 15th, which was the date of the expiration of his parole. He explained that Mr. Grady wished him to return to California. Appellee’s father then called Mr. Grady on long distance telephone and asked him what the trouble was, who said, “Well just simply this, that we don’t like the boy, he won’t- work — -he humiliated me by going to one of my competitors and seeking a job, he does not get along with his mother-in-law and won’t work unless there is $50.00 a week.” The father then told Grady that he did not want the boy placed in a position where he would get in trouble with the federal authorities as he was on probation. Grady said that he was his probation officer and that he 'wanted appellee to leave Cleveland. When asked if appellee had given any grievance, Grady replied, “No, we are just — don’t want him here; he has got the swell-head, he is too good for the job that he can get here in Cleveland.” Appellee’s father then told Grady that if he would arrange for appellee to leave Cleveland he would send him transportation. Grady’s reply was, “You send it just as quick as you can.” When asked if appellee would have to get permission from the probation department of Cleveland, Grady said, “There is no probation department in Cleveland; I am the parole officer.”

Mr. Meador, Federal Probation and Parole Officer for the Southern District of California, testified that he knew the appellee and that he had a long distance conversation with Mr. Grady, appellee’s parole adviser, and Mr. Grady had stated that he did not in exact words give permission for appellee to leave the Northern Dis[971]*971trict of Ohio, hut that he talked with appellee’s. father on the telephone and he could see where the Surprenants could understand that he meant authority for the young man to leave the Northern District of Ohio. As confirming the foregoing, there was offered in evidence the following:

“Nightletter
“Ray. L Huff Parole Executive
“Dept of Justice
“Washington D C
“Regarding George Surprenant Jr Matter Stop His Dad Telephoned Me Late One Night Early In July That He Had Heard From His Son In Cleveland To The Effect The Boy Was Dissatisfied In The East And Wanted Him Send Transportation To California Stop My Answer To the Best of My Recollection Was That He Could Do As He Choose Or Words To That Effect Stop Under The Circumstances I Can Now Readily See How They Would Think It Was Okay For The Boy To Leave When He Did Stop I Do Not Believe He Intended Any Parole Violation
“Pat Grady.”

Concerning parole regulations and practices, the Federal Probation and Parole Officer further testified:

“Your Honor, If I might explain one point in this matter, I referred to parole but really the matter is not parole. There is and has been since 1932 a difference in forms of supervision of persons released from a Federal prison. One is the parole as we understand it. That is where a portion of the term has been served and, for reasons, the prisoner released under supervision for the balance of the term. That is a parole.

“The other is where good time is earned by exemplary conduct on the part of an inmate in a Federal prison but he is not granted parole at the expiration of all the time less the good time earned. In a T5 months — -six days per month — he is then released for the balance of the term to which he had been sentenced under supervision but with the difference that in many cases the release — what they call the conditional release — men without a parole adviser- and permit them to go other than to the place from which they had been sentenced — the district from which they had been sentenced, and, as. a matter of fact, it is really in between regular parole and the probationary sentence. In other words, the man is under supervision.

“The Court: That is the situation here, Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
94 F.2d 969, 1938 U.S. App. LEXIS 4557, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-surprenant-ca9-1938.