Jackson v. United States

131 F.2d 606, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 2896
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedDecember 14, 1942
DocketNo. 12279
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 131 F.2d 606 (Jackson v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson v. United States, 131 F.2d 606, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 2896 (8th Cir. 1942).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

The appellant (who will be referred to as the defendant) on December, 6, 1941, entered a plea of guilty to an indictment based upon § 408e, 18 U.S.C.A., charging him with having traveled in interstate commerce from St. Louis, Missouri, in the Eastern Division of the Eastern Judicial District of Missouri, to New York City, New York, with intent to avoid prosecution for robbery in the first degree in a case pending against him in the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction. The sentence imposed upon the defendant was imprisonment for three years. He has appealed from the judgment, which he asserts is invalid, (1) because, at the time he entered his plea of guilty, he did not have the assistance of counsel and had not competently waived his right to the assistance of counsel; (2) because the indictment was insufficient; and (3) because the court, in sentencing him, provided that the three-year sentence of imprisonment which it imposed should run consecutively and not concurrently with a five-year sentence of imprisonment which shortly before had been imposed upon the defendant by a State court in St. Louis, Missouri, for robbery.

In addition to the record on appeal, we have been furnished by the Government with certain documents explanatory of what occurred in the court below. We cannot, of course, concern ourselves with anything which does not appear in the record. The record shows that the indictment was filed on March 4, 1941; that the defendant was arraigned on April 7, 1941; that the court, at his request, appointed counsel for him; that a plea of not guilty was entered; that his counsel then withdrew from the case; that the court appointed other counsel to represent him; that a record entry of the court recites that on December 6, 1941, “defendant in the absence of counsel heretofore appointed by the Court, waives the assistance of counsel, and by leave withdraws his plea of not guilty heretofore entered and enters plea of guilty to indictment herein;” and that thereupon the judgment complained of was entered.1

[608]*608It further appears from the record that on December 13, 1941, the defendant filed a motion, which was verified upon knowledge, information and belief, to set aside the judgment and for leave to withdraw his plea of guilty. This motion stated, in substance, that on November 14, 1941, after a trial in the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction, he was convicted of robbery in the first degree, and that the jury assessed his punishment at imprisonment for five years in the Missouri State penitentiary; that on December 5, 1941, he was sentenced by that court to serve five years in that penitentiary; that on December 6, 1941, the defendant was taken to the United States Court House in St. Louis, where he told an Assistant United States Attorney that he (the defendant) was anxious to have his federal case out of the way, so that he could begin serving his time in the State Penitentiary; that he understood this Assistant United States Attorney to say that “his [the defendant’s] counsellor was in Alton, Illinois, and couldn’t get down, but had said for him to plead guilty and everything would be all right;” that the defendant thought he would not be required to serve any additional time because of the federal indictment, and supposed that the State and Federal sentences would run concurrently, and that it was in reliance upon this misunderstanding that he withdrew his plea of not guilty and entered a plea of guilty; that he had a meritorious defense; that the indictment is fatally defective because “at no time prior, during, or within ten months after, the defendant’s leaving St. Louis, Missouri, and moving to New York City, New York was there a prosecution for robbery pending against him in the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction; that the prosecution referred to in the indictment in this case was not initiated until the Fall of 1939, and that defendant has already been incarcerated on this charge almost a year, that is since February, 1941.” The defendant further stated in his motion that “the statements made by the Parole officer to this Honorable Court on the morning of December 6, 1941 could have been answered had defendant’s counsel been present; that the fact that the defendant had been arrested some seventy-odd times by the St. Louis Police, but had been prosecuted only four times and these four times resulted in sentences for misdemeanors in the St. Louis Workhouse is evidence in itself that the arrests were unwarranted and are not to be considered as proof of any guilt.” The final assertion made by the defendant in his motion was that “his plea of ‘not guilty’ was withdrawn and his plea of ‘guilty’ entered by reason of a misunderstanding and mistake of fact and without affording him an opportunity to have the advice and assistance of the counsel appointed to defend him by this Honorable Court.” The purport of the defendant’s statements appears to be that he entered a plea of guilty because he was anxious to have the federal case disposed of, but that the sentence which he received was not the sentence he expected and that if his counsel had been present the result would have been different. The record discloses that on January 7, 1942, the court denied the defendant’s motion to vacate the judgment and to set aside the plea of guilty.

While we think that the court below, for its own protection and that of the defendant, might well have insisted upon the presence of defendant’s counsel at the time the defendant was permitted to withdraw his plea of not guilty and to enter a plea of guilty, there is no evidence in the record upon which to base a conclusion that the defendant did not voluntarily, advisedly, and intelligently waive his right to the assistance of his counsel, and enter his plea of guilty. The statements contained in his motion, which was made after the imposition of sentence, are not proof that the defendant’s constitutional right to the assistance of counsel was not competently waived, and are insufficient to impeach the records of the court, which indicate that the contrary was true. See and compare, Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 87, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680; Lisenba v. California, 314 U.S. 219, 226, 227, 62 S.Ct. 280, 86 L.Ed. 166; Gleckman v. United States, 8 Cir., 16 F.2d 670, 677. It was for the court below to appraise the truthfulness of the defendant’s assertions.

[609]*609The motion of the defendant to withdraw his plea of guilty, having been made after the imposition of sentence, came too late. Rule 2(4) of the Rules of Practice and Procedure in Criminal Cases, promulgated by the Supreme Court, 18 U.S. C.A. following section 688, provides: “A motion to withdraw a plea of guilty shall be made within ten (10) days after entry of such plea and before sentence is imposed.” See Farrington v. King, 8 Cir., 128 F.2d 785, 787, and cases cited.

The indictment sufficiently advised the defendant of the charge which he was required to meet, and was specific enough to avoid the danger of his being prosecuted again for the same offense. That is all that was necessary. See Hewitt v. United States, 8 Cir., 110 F.2d 1, 6, and cases cited.

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Bluebook (online)
131 F.2d 606, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 2896, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-v-united-states-ca8-1942.