Clarkson Fuller v. Kermit A. Weakley, Superintendent, Lorton Reformatory, Lorton, Va., & D. C. Board of Parole

349 F.2d 90, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 4749
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedAugust 2, 1965
Docket9864_1
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 349 F.2d 90 (Clarkson Fuller v. Kermit A. Weakley, Superintendent, Lorton Reformatory, Lorton, Va., & D. C. Board of Parole) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clarkson Fuller v. Kermit A. Weakley, Superintendent, Lorton Reformatory, Lorton, Va., & D. C. Board of Parole, 349 F.2d 90, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 4749 (4th Cir. 1965).

Opinion

J. SPENCER BELL, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from an order of the district court dismissing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus without an evidential hearing. The petitioner, Clarkson Fuller, was convicted in the District Court for the District of Columbia of violating 26 U.S.C.A. § 4705(a) (narcotics) and sentenced on February 27, 1959, under the provisions of 26 U.S.C.A. § 7237(b) to six years. He was incarcerated at Lorton, Virginia, a District of Columbia penal institution, where his good time allowance was computed under 18 U.S.C.A. § 4161.

On April 5, 1963, he was given a mandatory good time release under the provisions of 18 U.S.C.A. § 4163 1 and was placed in a parolee status in compliance with the provisions of 18 U.S.C.A. § 4164 until August 30, 1964, the maximum expiration date of his six year sentence.

On August 14, 1963, a parole violator warrant was issued by the District of Columbia Board of Parole [hereinafter D.C.Parole Board] under the provisions of section 24-205 of the District of Columbia Code [hereinafter D.C.Code] charging that the petitioner had violated the terms of his conditional release.

On December 13, 1963, Fuller was arrested in New York City, convicted on a charge of petit larceny, and sentenced to serve six months in jail. On December 17,1963, the D.C. parole violator warrant was “placed as a detainer” against the defendant pending the completion of his sentence in New York.

On April 30,1964, a habeas corpus petition by the defendant was docketed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to Fuller’s reply in the present proceeding, the New York habeas petition attacked the D.C. parole violator warrant on the ground that “they” were attempting to extradite him from New York for the commission of misdemeanors in the District of Columbia. The petitioner here also alleges that one of the grounds of his New York habeas petition was that the D.C. warrant could not lawfully issue for a breach of the conditions of his good conduct release for reasons which shall be discussed later. The New York habeas petition was set down on the motion docket for a hearing on May 11, 1964.

On May 15 the defendant’s New York sentence expired, and on that date the D.C. parole violator warrant was served on him at the Manhattan House of Detention in New York City. Fuller was taken from New York and delivered to a D.C. jail on May 18,1964.

On June 1, 1964, it appears from the answer of the U. S. Attorney in this case, the New York habeas petition was dismissed without prejudice. 2

*92 On June 10, 1964, the defendant was convicted in the Court of General Sessions for the District of Columbia of two misdemeanors and sentenced to serve a total term of 360 days. These sentences were not completed when this habeas petition was filed on June 29,1964. 3 It is for these misdemeanors that the defendant alleges he was illegally “extradited” from New York City.

Fuller’s current habeas corpus petition was dismissed by the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on August 3, 1964. This appeal followed.

The appeal raises three issues. First, the petitioner contends that the provisions of the D.C.Code 4 relating to indeterminate sentences and paroles do not apply to him because he was convicted of violating a general federal statute, as distinguished from a criminal law of the District of Columbia, and because he was released under the federal mandatory good time statute. Consequently, he argues, the D.C. Parole Board was without power to arrest him under the D.C.Code provision authorizing the arrest of parole violators. This argument is without merit. In Gould v. Green, 78 U.S.App.D.C. 363, 141 F.2d 533 (1944), this very point was settled. There the prisoner had been sentenced under the Dyer Act (a general federal law), had been imprisoned in a D.C. penal institution, and had subsequently received a mandatory good time release. He was recommitted on a parole violator warrant issued by the D.C. Parole Board. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the order of recommitment, holding that there was no doubt that the D.C. Parole Board had the same powers over prisoners confined in D.C. institutions for violating general federal statutes as the U.S. Parole Board had over violators of general federal statutes confined in institutions outside the District. 5 It specifically held that the federal mandatory good time release provisions, including the predecessor of 18 U.S.C.A. § 4164, applied to violators of general federal statutes confined in District of Columbia institutions.

In Gould there was no issue involving the recomputation of the prisoner’s remaining term, because the provisions of the federal statute and the D.C.Code were identical. Subsequently the D.C.Code was amended to provide for a method of sentence recomputation which resulted in a longer confinement upon recommitment for D.C. prisoners. In Howerton v. Rivers, 326 F.2d 653 (D.C. Cir. 1963), the court held under factual circumstances identical to this case that the provisions of the D.C. Code relating to recomputation of sentence applied upon recommitment to a D.C. prisoner, even though he had originally violated a general federal law. Neither Gilstrap v. Clemmer, 284 F.2d 804 (4 Cir. 1960), nor Clokey v. United States Parole Board, 310 F.2d 86 (4 Cir. 1962), is contra on the facts, for both of these cases dealt with prisoners who had violated provisions of the D.C. Code, the former having been confined at all times in a D.C. institution and the latter having been confined for part of his sentence in an institution outside the District but later having been recommitted to a D.C. institution. It is true that there was a suggestion in both those cases, contrary to the holding in the Hower- *93 ton case, that a D.C.Code violator upon recommitment should have his sentence computed under the D.C.Code provisions and a general federal law violator should have his sentence computed under the federal statutes, in both cases without regard to the place of confinement. However, we are not here concerned with the term of the prisoner’s recomputed sentence. 6 Our sole concern is with the power of the D.C. Parole Board to arrest and recommit Puller, and we are persuaded by Gould and Howerton that it had such power.

Second, the petitioner contends that even if he, a general federal violator, was subject to the provisions of the D.C. Code pertaining to parole, the D.C. Parole Board did not have the power to issue the parole violator warrant in this case because the terms of 26 U.S.C.A. § 7237(d) 7

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349 F.2d 90, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 4749, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clarkson-fuller-v-kermit-a-weakley-superintendent-lorton-reformatory-ca4-1965.