Owens v. United States

383 F. Supp. 780
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 15, 1974
DocketCiv. No. 74-380
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 383 F. Supp. 780 (Owens v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Owens v. United States, 383 F. Supp. 780 (M.D. Pa. 1974).

Opinion

383 F.Supp. 780 (1974)

Paul Braxton OWENS, Petitioner,
v.
UNITED STATES of America, Respondent.

Civ. No. 74-380.

United States District Court, M. D. Pennsylvania.

October 15, 1974.

*781 F. Lee Shipman, Goldberg, Evans & Katzman, Harrisburg, Pa., for petitioner.

S. John Cottone, U. S. Atty., Michael D. McDowell, Asst. U. S. Atty., Lewisburg, Pa., for respondent.

SHERIDAN, Chief Judge.

Petitioner, then an inmate at the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, brought this proceeding under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255, attacking a sentence imposed by this court. Petitioner was permitted to proceed in forma pauperis. Respondent filed a motion to dismiss the petition as moot, since the petitioner had completed the sentence he was attacking and was incarcerated on other unrelated charges. This court denied the motion and ordered the petition construed as an application for a writ of error coram nobis. 28 U.S.C.A. § 1651; United States v. Morgan, 1953, 346 U.S. 502, 74 S.Ct. 1247, 98 L.Ed. 248; Azzone v. United States, 8 Cir. 1965, 341 F.2d 417, cert. denied, 1968, 390 U.S. 970, 88 S.Ct. 1090, 19 L.Ed.2d 1180; Rini v. Katzenbach, 7 Cir. 1967, 374 F.2d 836; United States v. Garguilo, 2 Cir. 1963, 324 F.2d 795; United States v. Malinsky, S.D.N.Y.1970, 310 F.Supp. 523.

For the reasons stated infra, the petitioner's application will be denied.

On March 13, 1962, petitioner entered a plea of guilty to a two count information charging him with knowingly uttering bad checks on a government reservation *782 in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 13. The court sentenced petitioner to two consecutive sentences of one year. Crim. No. 13690. After serving these terms, petitioner was released, and in 1971, in this district he was convicted of bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and § 2113(d) and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Crim.No. 14727. He was serving a sentence imposed in that case when he filed this application. He is presently on parole.

Petitioner's first contention is that trial in a United States District Court denied him the due process right to a military court-martial. We are urged to hold that if conduct violates both military and civilian laws and is servicerelated, it must be tried in a military court. See O'Callahan v. Parker, 1969, 395 U.S. 258, 89 S.Ct. 1683, 23 L.Ed.2d 291. The only possible authority for this proposition is a footnote in Gosa v. Mayden, 1973, 413 U.S. 665, 681 n. 6, 93 S.Ct. 2926, 2936, 37 L.Ed.2d 873:

"There are some protections in the military system not afforded the accused in the civilian counterpart. For example, Art. 32 of the Code, 10 U.S.C. § 832, requires `thorough and impartial investigation' prior to trial, and prescribes for the accused the rights to be advised of the charge, to have counsel present at the investigation, to cross-examine adverse witnesses there, and to present exonerating evidence. It is not difficult to imagine, also, the situation where a defendant, who is in service, may well receive a more objective hearing in a court-martial than from a local jury of a community that resents the military presence."

Petitioner was advised of the charges against him and represented by counsel at the arraignment. There, he waived both the "thorough and impartial investigation" and the rights "to cross-examine adverse witnesses ... and to present exonerating evidence" which would have been afforded him at a civilian trial by pleading guilty to the charges against him.

Without question, the crimes to which petitioner pleaded guilty are cognizable in a court-martial. Petitioner was a member of the Armed Forces at the time of the issuance of the bad checks, and they were cashed on a United States Army Post. "When a serviceman is charged with an offense committed within or at the geographical boundary of a military post and violative of the security of a person or property there, that offense may be tried by a court-martial." Relford v. Commandant, 1971, 401 U.S. 355, 369, 91 S.Ct. 649, 657, 28 L.Ed.2d 102. The vesting of jurisdiction in one court does not automatically divest another court of jurisdiction over the same subject matter, however; concurrent jurisdiction is a well-settled doctrine in our jurisprudence. Petitioner has cited no authority which supports the proposition that the civilian prosecution of a soldier for conduct amounting to a civilian, albeit service-related, offense denies the latter the due process of law.

In Caldwell v. Parker, 1920, 252 U.S. 376, 40 S.Ct. 388, 64 L.Ed. 621, the Court held that the jurisdiction to try and punish for a crime is not vested exclusively in a military court but is concurrent with the civilian tribunal having jurisdiction over the locus criminis. O'Callahan, supra, does not disturb this rule of law, and it is certainly of continuing validity. United States v. Guido, 3 Cir. 1947, 161 F.2d 492; United States v. Hodge, 5 Cir. 1973, 487 F.2d 945; Schmitt v. United States, 5 Cir., 413 F.2d 219, cert. denied, 1969, 396 U.S. 959, 90 S.Ct. 432, 24 L.Ed.2d 423; Kennedy v. Sanford, 5 Cir., 166 F.2d 568, cert. denied, 1948, 333 U.S. 864, 68 S.Ct. 737, 92 L.Ed. 1143; Lucas v. Sanford, 5 Cir. 1944, 145 F.2d 229; Robinson v. United States, 9 Cir. 1949, 175 F.2d 4; cf. Simmons v. United States, M.D.Pa. 1954, 120 F.Supp. 641, 648 n. 12; see also Madsen v. Kinsella, 1952, 343 U.S. 341, 349-350 n. 16, 72 S.Ct. 699, 96 L.Ed. 988.

O'Callahan, supra, cited by petitioner, insofar as is here relevant, stands for *783 the proposition that for non servicerelated crimes, a member of the Armed Forces must be given a civilian "due process" trial. The rationale is that "a court martial is not yet an independent instrument of justice but remains to a significant degree a specialized part of the overall mechanism by which military discipline is preserved." 395 U.S. at 265, 89 S.Ct. at 1686. The suggestion that a court-martial — which is something less than a "due process" trial — should be required to the exclusion of a "due process" trial is not well taken. In fact O'Callahan recognizes that military court proceedings are "in general less favorable to defendants," id. at 265, 89 S.Ct. at 1687, than civilian trials.[1]

Accordingly, jurisdiction was properly exercised by this court.

Petitioner's second contention is that the judgment against him should be vacated due to irregularities in the procedure used by this court in sentencing petitioner at the time of his plea of guilty.

Under the Youth Corrections Act, 18 U.S.C. § 5005 et seq., an alternate system of corrections is provided for younger offenders. The statute, passed in 1950, Act Sept. 30, 1950, c. 1115, § 2, 64 Stat.

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Bluebook (online)
383 F. Supp. 780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/owens-v-united-states-pamd-1974.