Morgan v. United States

265 F. Supp. 779, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8491
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedFebruary 14, 1967
DocketCiv. No. 11544
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 265 F. Supp. 779 (Morgan v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morgan v. United States, 265 F. Supp. 779, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8491 (D. Conn. 1967).

Opinion

TIMBERS, Chief Judge.

Petitioner, a prisoner at the Federal Correctional Institution at Danbury and no stranger to this Court or the Court of Appeals,1 has filed his third motion to vacate sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255, which motion, after due consideration, is denied.

Petitioner was indicted in this District on November 19, 1962 (together with co-defendants Harry Stein and Gerald Gerardi) on charges of conspiracy to violate, and violations of, the Mann Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 2421. Upon a jury verdict of guilty, following an eight day trial, petitioner was sentenced on April [780]*7808, 1968 to concurrent four year terms of imprisonment on each of the three counts of the indictment.2

The Court of Appeals (Chief Judge Lumbard and Circuit Judges Waterman and Friendly) unanimously affirmed the judgments of conviction on February 10, 1964 in a per curiam opinion stating, inter alia, that “There was abundant evidence to support the verdict of the jury with respect to each of the defendants, his part in causing the transportation of the women from Connecticut to New York, and his knowledge of the purpose in such transportation.” United States v. Harry Stein, Gerald Gerardi and Alfonso Morgan, 327 F.2d 657, 658 (2 Cir. 1964).

The Court of Appeals’ affirmance of petitioner’s conviction was the prelude to what has become a three-year deluge of motions, petitions, applications and proceedings of every description in this Court and in the Court of Appeals, including two previous § 2255 motions in this Court.

Petitioner’s third and latest § 2255 motion raises the following claims:

(1) That he was denied effective assistance of counsel at trial.
(2) That his statement given to the 'FBI following his arrest (Govt. Ex. T) was erroneously admitted in evidence.
(3) That his statement (Govt. Ex. T) was the “fruit” of an illegal search and seizure by the Portchester Police Department.

CLAIM OF DENIAL OF EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL

This claim was first raised by petitioner in a motion addressed to the Court of Appeals, after its affirmance of his conviction, requesting that he be relieved of assigned counsel and that new counsel be assigned to him, on the ground of allegedly improper and/or incompetent representation of petitioner by assigned counsel. This motion was denied by the Court of Appeals by an order entered April 17, 1964.

Petitioner then filed in the District Court on May 20, 1964 his first motion to vacate sentence pursuant to § 2255, alleging improper and/or incompetent representation of petitioner by assigned counsel. This motion was denied by the District Court by an order entered June 18, 1964 (a copy of which is attached as Exhibit A). Petitioner appealed this order to the Court of Appeals, pursuant to a notice of appeal filed August 25, 1964. The appeal is still pending, but has not been prosecuted.

The Court holds, accordingly, that petitioner’s claim of denial of effective assistance of counsel is not open to him on the instant motion to vacate sentence. 28 U.S.C. § 2255, j[5.

Even if such claim were open to petitioner, the Court would reject it upon the merits. Petitioner’s present counsel, with commendable candor, concedes that petitioner’s court-appointed trial counsel was familiar with the subject matter of the case and had talked to petitioner before he was appointed (Motion, p. 4); and that neither petitioner nor his court-appointed counsel complained in any way at the trial of such appointment or of the time schedule upon which the trial proceeded (Motion, p. 3). The undersigned, who presided at the trial of the case, based upon his observations of the conduct of court-appointed counsel with relation to petitioner, is satisfied that petitioner was effectively represented by counsel at every stage of the proceedings in the District Court.

CLAIM OF ERRONEOUS ADMISSION OF PETITIONER’S STATEMENT TO FBI AFTER ARREST

This claim was raised in petitioner’s second motion, filed in the District Court on September 16, 1964, to vacate sentence pursuant to § 2255, alleging that [781]*781the statement in question (Govt. Ex. T) was erroneously admitted in evidence because obtained from him in violation of his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment (due process) and the Sixth Amendment (right to counsel).

The Court issued an order to show cause on September 23, 1964 requiring the government to file a written response to petitioner’s second § 2255 motion showing why it should not be granted or why an evidentiary hearing should not be held. Such response was filed by the government. Before the Court could act upon the second § 2255 motion, however, petitioner on October 23, 1964 filed in the District Court a habeas corpus petition raising again the subject matter of his second § 2255 motion. The Court thereupon, in the interest of orderly administration of justice, entered an order on November 16, 1964 (a copy of which is attached as Exhibit B) staying further post-conviction proceedings by petitioner in the District Court until 20 days after issuance of the mandate of the Court of Appeals upon petitioner’s appeals then pending in the Court of Appeals, including his appeal from the District Court’s order of June 18, 1964 denying his first § 2255 motion.3

Petitioner then filed in the Court of Appeals motions for bail and for leave to proceed in forma pauperis with respect to his appeals from the District Court orders of June 18, 1964 and November 16, 1964; these motions were denied by the Court of Appeals on June 11, 1965. In the meanwhile, petitioner on February 16, 1965 filed in the United States Supreme Court a motion for leave to file a petition for habeas corpus, presumably with respect to the District Court orders of June 18, 1964 and November 16, 1964; this motion was denied by the Supreme Court on April 26, 1965. 380 U.S. 969.

Upon this record, it is questionable whether there is open to petitioner on the instant motion to vacate sentence his claim that his statement given to the FBI after his arrest was erroneously admitted at the trial.4 Under all the circumstances, however, the Court will resolve in petitioner’s favor any doubts as to whether this claim is open to him at this stage and will rule on its merits.

The Court holds there is no merit to petitioner’s claim that his statement to the FBI was erroneously admitted at the trial, for the following reasons:

(i) Before the statement (Govt. Ex. T) was received in evidence at the trial, a full evidentiary hearing was held in the absence of the jury (Tr. 841-861). The objections to the statement raised in petitioner’s instant motion were considered and specifically overruled at the time of trial (Tr.
859- 861).

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Related

Morgan v. United States
295 F. Supp. 967 (D. Connecticut, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
265 F. Supp. 779, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8491, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morgan-v-united-states-ctd-1967.