United States ex rel. Hall v. McGowan

80 F. Supp. 792, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2180
CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedOctober 22, 1948
DocketCivil Action No. 2844
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 80 F. Supp. 792 (United States ex rel. Hall v. McGowan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States ex rel. Hall v. McGowan, 80 F. Supp. 792, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2180 (mnd 1948).

Opinion

NORDBYE, Chief Judge.

The admitted facts appear to be as follows : Petitioner is being held in the Hennepin County Jail under a parole warrant executed by John J. McGowan, United States Marshal, on September 24, 1948. On January 22, 1936, in the United States-District Court for the District of Oregon, the petitioner was sentenced to serve six years and to pay a fine in the sum of $2,000 on his conviction of impersonating a Federal Officer. On or about May 16, 1940, he was released conditionally on parole under the provisions of Section 714 [now § 4202], Title 18 U.S.C.A. During the month of September, 1940, petitioner left the jurisdiction of the United States and entered-into the Armed Forces of Canada, and was in Canada and Great Britain from September, 1940, until December, 1944. On November 12, 1940, within the term of petitioner’s sentence, a parole warrant was issued for the arrest of petitioner by the United States Parole Board under the provisions of Section 717 [now § 4205], Title 18 U.S.C.A. Petitioner was returned to the United States as a deportee in December, 1944, and upon his entry was arrested on an indictment pending in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. On January 23, 1945, in the United States District Court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, petitioner was sentenced to serve six months imprisonment, which sentence was suspended and he was placed on probation for two years. Before the probationary period expired, he was arrested in Chicago, Illinois, and on or about October 8, 1946, was sentenced in that city to the House of Corrections for [793]*793two years on a state charge. He was confined in the House of Corrections until July 28, 1948, and upon his release he was taken back to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania as a violator of his probation in that District. After a hearing, the Court continued his probation. Upon his release by the United States authorities in Pennsylvania, he was removed to Minnesota for prosecution on a state charge, and upon entering a plea of guilty to the charge pending in the State Court, he was placed on probation for a period of three years. It was following his release on probation in Minneapolis from this state charge that the parole warrant issued November 12, 1940, was served on September 24, 1948. It appears, therefore, that since the parole warrant was issued on November 12, 1940, petitioner either has been out of the jurisdiction of the United States, in prison, or on probation. Since he was deported to the United States in December, 1944, he has been at liberty for some one year and nine months, during which time he was on probation, and during the remainder of the time he has been incarcerated in some institution or county jail. It is petitioner’s position that the parole warrant was not timely served and has become void, and that therefore the Parole Board is without jurisdiction.

We have a situation, therefore, where the warrant was issued within the term of the sentence imposed by the Oregon court, but was not executed until long after the sentence had expired. The statute, Section 717, Title 18 U.S.C.A., requires that the warrant be issued within the term of the prisoner’s sentence, but it is silent as to within what time the warrant must be served. That it may be executed after the term has expired seems free from doubt. United States v. Thompson, D.C., 47 F. Supp. 150; Hamilton v. Hunter, D.C., 65 F.Supp. 319; Welch v. Hillis, D.C., 53 F. Supp. 456. There is, however, an intimation in some of the cases that the warrant must be served within a reasonable time .after its issue. Hamilton v. Hunter, supra; Welch v. Hillis, supra. But when a parolee is in actual custody by reason of another Federal or State charge, the Parole Board is not required to execute an outstanding warrant. Adams v. Huspeth, 10 Cir., 121 F.2d 270; Hogan v. Zerbst, 5 Cir., 101 F.2d 634; Anderson v. Corall, 263 U.S. 193, 44 S.Ct. 43, 68 L.Ed. 247. And obviously, it cannot be contended that the warrant could be served while petitioner was in Canada and Great Britain during the period from 1940 to 1944. However, petitioner argues that the parole warrant should 'have been served while he was on probation, that is, during the one year and nine months’ period that he was at liberty on probation between January, 1945, and September, 1948. Assuming that the parole authorities knew his whereabouts when he was on probation, petitioner in effect suggests that he has a right to determine when the warrant should be served notwithstanding that the service of the parole warrant while he was on probation might permit him to serve two sentences concurrently. That his position in this regard is wholly untenable seems clear. Groce v. Hudspeth, 10 Cir., 121 F.2d 800. Whether one is in actual custody or on probation on a suspended sentence, he is in the legal custody of the court which imposed the sentence. In other words, the court which exercised its jurisdiction holds it to the exclusion of others until its duty is fully performed and its jurisdiction exhausted. Taylor v. Taintor, 16 Wall. 366, 21 L.Ed. 287; Ponzi v. Fessenden, 258 U.S. 254, 42 S.Ct. 309, 66 L.Ed. 607, 22 A.L.R. 879; Grant v. Guernsey, 10 Cir., 63 F.2d 163.

In Hogan v. Zerbst, supra, appellant was sentenced to serve four years in a Federal jail on November 7, 1931. He was released on parole on December 5, 1933. While he was on parole he was arrested in another State charged with robbery. On July 23, 1935, while the state charge was pending, a parole warrant was issued. Apparently the State Court proceedings took some time, but they were finally terminated in appellant’s favor by the indictment’s being nolled. In the interim, he had been reporting to the Federal Probation Officer as required by the conditions of parole, and it appears that during the time that the state charge was pending, he was either in jail for part of the time or out on bail. On [794]*794August 12, 1937, after the termination of the State Court proceedings, the warrant was executed and appellant was required to serve the balance of his Federal sentence. In disposing of the appellant’s contention that the Parole Board had lost jurisdiction because the warrant had not been served until after the term of his sentence had expired, the Court held that “While awaiting trial under the state charge appellant was either actually or constructively in custody of the state court which had authority to detain 'him.” Page 634 of 101 F.2d.

It must follow, therefore, that it was not incumbent upon the Parole Board to serve the warrant during the pendency of the proceedings in Pennsylvania, Illinois, or Minnesota, during which time petitioner was either in custody or on probation. The Parole Board was not required to interfere with the custody of the other courts when such custody and control was occasioned by petitioner’s infractions of the law. As the court observed in Dillingham v. United States, 5 Cir., 76 F.2d 35, 36:

“ * * * One on probation is not at large, nor at liberty, except within the circumscribed limits permitted by his probation. He is in law and in fact in the custody and under the control of the court of his probation.

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Related

United States v. Gernie
228 F. Supp. 329 (S.D. New York, 1964)
United States v. Binion
13 F.R.D. 238 (D. Nevada, 1952)
Hall v. McGowan
174 F.2d 902 (Eighth Circuit, 1949)

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Bluebook (online)
80 F. Supp. 792, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-hall-v-mcgowan-mnd-1948.