Graham v. Blackwell

291 F. Supp. 761, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11572
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Tennessee
DecidedMay 3, 1968
DocketCiv. No. 4997
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 291 F. Supp. 761 (Graham v. Blackwell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Graham v. Blackwell, 291 F. Supp. 761, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11572 (M.D. Tenn. 1968).

Opinion

ORDER

WILLIAM E. MILLER, Chief Judge.

In this proceeding, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255, petitioner has moved the Court to reconsider its order denying his motion to vacate sentence.

[763]*763The petitioner is presently restrained of his liberty in a United States penitentiary as a result of a sentence imposed by this Court on December 23, 1964, following a verdict of guilty upon charges of violating 26 U.S.C. § 7203, § 4401(a), § 4401(c), § 4411 and § 4412. The gist of the charges against petitioner was a failure to comply with the federal wagering tax provisions applicable to persons engaged in the business of accepting wagers and persons who have accepted wagers. Petitioner contends that his restraint is illegal in that he was convicted in violation of his constitutional right not to incriminate himself.

Two contentions are advanced by petitioner in support of his motion for reconsideration. They are: (1) the Court erred in failing to apply retroactively the rule propounded by the United States Supreme Court in Marchetti v. United States, 390 U.S. 39, 88 S.Ct. 697, 19 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), and Grosso v. United States, 390 U.S. 62, 88 S.Ct. 709, 19 L.Ed.2d 906 (1968); and (2) the Court erred in stating that the petitioner had waived his constitutional right not to incriminate himself by failing to assert the privilege at his trial. These contentions will be considered in order.

Petitioner asserts that the Marchetti and the Grosso decisions should be applied retroactively to render his present confinement illegal. Those decisions deal with factual situations closely resembling the instant case in that in each case, the petitioner had been convicted for failure to comply with the same wagering tax requirements. Both Marchetti and Grosso had protested at their trials that compliance with the federal statutory obligations violated their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Marchetti, supra 390 U.S. at 49, 88 S.Ct. 697; Grosso, supra at 63, 88 S.Ct. 709. On the authority of United States v. Kahriger, 345 U.S. 22, 73 S.Ct. 510, 97 L.Ed. 754 (1953), and Lewis v. United States, 348 U.S. 419, 75 S.Ct. 415, 99 L.Ed. 475 (1955), the trial courts refused to allow the petitioners to challenge the constitutionality of the requirements on that basis. However, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to re-examine the constitutionality under the Fifth Amendment of the pertinent provisions of the wagering tax statutes and whether Kahriger and Lewis still had vitality. Stated very briefly, the Supreme Court concluded that those provisions may not be employed to punish criminally those persons who have defended a failure to comply with the requirements with a proper assertion of the privilege against self-incrimination. The Court reversed the appellate court decisions upholding the convictions for violations of the federal wagering tax statutes.

With respect to the question of whether or not a new constitutional principle should be accorded retroactive effect, the rule approved by the Supreme Court in Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965), and Tehan v. United States ex rel. Shott, 382 U.S. 406, 86 S.Ct. 459, 15 L.Ed.2d 453 (1966), is that in criminal cases concerning constitutional claims, the court may in the interest of justice make a rule prospective only where the exigencies of the situation require such an application. Johnson v. State of New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966). The criteria for determining whether a rule should have prospective application only are (1) the purpose to be served by the new standard, (2) the extent of the reliance by law enforcement officials upon prior decisions on the subject, and (3) the effect on the administration of justice of a retroactive application of the new standard. As stated in Linkletter, supra, the court must weigh the merits and demerits in each case. The way in which these criteria combine must inevitably vary with the rule involved and retro-activity must be determined in each case by looking to the peculiar traits in question. 381 U.S. at 629, 85 S.Ct. 1731.

This fact and the language used in Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. [764]*7641967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967), suggest that the three criteria to be used in determining whether retroactive application is proper may be balanced by the court. In Stovall, supra, the Court, after discussing the purpose factor, referred to “the unusual force of the countervailing considerations” strengthening its conclusion in favor of prospective application. [Emphasis supplied.] 388 U.S. at 299, 87 S.Ct. at 1971. The Court also stated, “We regard the factors of reliance and burden on the administration of justice as entitled to such overriding significance as to make that distinction unsupportable.” [Emphasis supplied.] Id. at 300, 87 S.Ct. at 1972.

The first criterion is concerned with the purpose of the new standard. In determining whether this criterion has been met, the Court has considered the reasoning of the Supreme Court in Johnson v. New Jersey, supra, a case dealing with whether or not retroactive effect should be accorded to the rules in Escobedo v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964), and Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, 10 A.L.R.3d 974 (1966). There, having found that the prime purpose of those rulings was to guarantee full effectuation of the privilege against self-incrimination, the Supreme Court pointed out that the rulings encompass situations in which the danger of self-incrimination is not as great as when the accused is subjected to overt and obvious coercion. By suggesting that there are differences in the degree to which a person may be made to incriminate himself, the Court seems to recognize that, although the Escobedo and Miranda rules were formulated for the purpose of insuring that only reliable statements would result from in-custody interrogation, the danger of unreliability was not so great as to warrant making the decisions retroactive.

The Court is of the opinion that the Supreme Court would respond similarly to the question of whether or not the Marchetti and Grosso rule should be accorded retroactivity.

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Bluebook (online)
291 F. Supp. 761, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graham-v-blackwell-tnmd-1968.