Moss v. United States

72 F.2d 30, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 4434
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedJune 28, 1934
DocketNo. 3703
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 72 F.2d 30 (Moss v. United States) 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
Moss v. United States, 72 F.2d 30, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 4434 (4th Cir. 1934).

Opinion

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

This appeal is taken from the action of the District Court in overruling a motion of the defendant whereby he sought, on account of the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, to be discharged from a judgment or sentence of imprisonment for eighteen months for violation of the National Prohibition Act (27 USCA § 1 et seq.). On May 22, 1933, at a regular term of the court at Bryson City, N. C., the defendant pleaded guilty to an indictment in which he was charged with the violation of the National Prohibition Act by the unlawful manufacture, possession, and transportation of intoxicating liquor, and the unlawful possession of materials designed for the manufacture of intoxicating liquor. On the same day, he was sentenced to be imprisoned for eighteen months and assigned to some federal prison camp. He was thereupon taken into custody, a mittimus was issued for him, and he was placed in the jail to await [31]*31transportation to the place of detention to he fixed by the Attorney General for the service of his sentence. See 18 USCA §§ 742-, 753 f.

On May 29,1933, the attorneys for the defendant appeared before the court and represented that the defendant’s business affairs were in bad condition; that he had a large number of cattle in mountain pastures, and a large crop planted which needed his personal supervision, and requested the court to release the defendant from jail upon his givIng bond on the condition that he would later appear and enter upon the service of his sentence. Thereupon the defendant was ordered released upon giving a bond for $2,900 upon the condition that he appear at the November team of the court, to begin the execution of the judgment and sentence of eighteen months imposed on May 22, 1933, as above stated, The defendant, however, failed to appear at the November term, 3933, at Bryson City, as he was bound to do, whereupon, on November 27, 1933, it was ordered that judgment nisi upon the bond be entered against the defendant and Ms bondsman, and that a capias issue for the defendant. On December 4, 1933, at a term of court held at the city of Shelby, to which the case had been transferred, it was noted that the defendant had failed to appear at Bryson City and was a fugitive from justice, and it was ordered that the clerk issue a capias and mittimus for the defendant, and that the sentence imposed at the May term he invoked. The mittimus to the marshal recited the conviction of the defendant and his sentence to a federal prison camp or penitentiary to he designated by the Attorney Gen-oral of the United States for a term of eighteen months commencing December 4, 1933. Subsequently, a bench warrant was issued on May 18, 1934, and, the defendant was arrested on May 19, 1934, and has been confined in jail continuously since that day. After his arrest, he filed the motion hereinbefore referred to, wherein he prayed the court that he be discharged from custody in that the judgment entered in his absence on December 4, 1933, was null and void and of no effect, and that the court is now without jurisdiction to pronounee sentence, since the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was repealed on December 5, 1933. The court, after hearing, ordered on May 28,1934, that certain corrections be made in the records of the court in order to set out the true history of the case, denied the defendant’s motion, and ordered that he be committed to the United States Industrial Reformatory at Chillicothe, Ohio, to servo a sentence of eighteen months.

The defendant contends that the court erred in changing the records previously made in the case, and in finding the facts with regard to the imposition of the sentence herein-before recited. The original record clearly shows that the defendant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eighteen months in prison and committed to custody on May 22, 1933, and that he remained in custody until May 29, 1933. The subsequent records, as originally filed, would perhaps give rise to some doubt as to whether on May 29,1933, the sentence previously entered was stricken out, or whether on that date the execution/ of the sentence was merely suspended until ’he November term and the defendant released on bond in the meantime. The record originally made on May 29‘,1933, indicated that the ease bad been recalled and that prayer for judgment was continued to the November term, the defendant to give bond in the sum of $2,009; but the record made on December 4, 1933, invoked the sentence imposed at the May term and thereby indicated that it had not been stricken out. It was under these circumstances that the motion to correct the records was made and granted with the result that after correction they appear in the form first above set out. No error is found in this action, for it is well established that the power is inherent in every court to correct its own records in order that they may truly show its Pa®t proceedings. Wight v. Nicholson, 134 U. S. 136, 10 S. Ct. 487, 33 L. Ed. 865; U. S. ex rel. Campbell v. Bishop (C. C. A.) 47 F. (2d) 95; Cornette v. Baltimore & O. R. Co. (C. C. A.) 195 F. 59; 15 Corpus Juris, 975; Ricaud v. Alderman & Flanner, 132 N. C. 62, 43 S. E. 543.

The defendant’s main contention is that the sentence of May 22, 1933, was stricken out by the court on May 29,1933, in the exereise of its power to amend a sentence imposed in a criminal case during the same term, of court (see United States v. Benz, 282 U. S. 304, 51 S. Ct. 113, 75 L. Ed. 354); and that since tlie defendant was not before the court on December 4, 1933, the action of the court on that day did not amount to a valid judgment, and that the order or judgment of the court passed on May 28, 1934, was void and of no effect because of the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, under the rule laid down in Chambers v. United Stales, 291 U. S. 217, 54 S. Ct. 434, 78 L. Ed. 763, 89 A. L. R. 1510. See, also, Massey v. United States, 54 S. Ct. 532., 78 L. Ed. 1019; Cornerz v. United States (C. C. A.) 69 F.(2d) 965; Smallwood v. United States (C. C. A.) 68 F.(2d) 244; Short v. United States (C. C. A.) 79 F.(2d) [32]*32105; Warren v. United States (C. C. A.) 70 F.(2d) 105; Ponder v. United States (C. C. A.) 70 F.(2d) 372; United States v. Antinori (C. C. A.) 59 F.(2d) 171.

We are, however, not confronted with this factual situation, since it appears from the correction of the court’s record that a valid sentence was imposed upon the defendant on May 22,1933, which has never been stricken out, and that the defendant immediately entered upon the execution of that sentence when he was committed to jail to await transportation to the final place of imprisonment. It is provided by the Act of June 29, 1932, c. 310, § 1, 47 Stat. 381, 18 USCA § 709 (a), that the sentence of imprisonment of any person convicted of a crime in a court of the United States shall commence to run from the date on which the person was received at the place of imprisonment for the service of the sentence; and that if any such person is committed to a jail to await transportation to the place at which his sentence is to be served, the sentence shall commence to run from the date on which he was received at such jail.

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Bluebook (online)
72 F.2d 30, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 4434, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moss-v-united-states-ca4-1934.