United States v. Ketchum

272 F. Supp. 897, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7120
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedJuly 25, 1967
DocketCrim. No. 26908; Civ. No. 16773
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 272 F. Supp. 897 (United States v. Ketchum) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Ketchum, 272 F. Supp. 897, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7120 (D. Md. 1967).

Opinion

FRANK A. KAUFMAN, District Judge.

“This case is to be classified with those others, not uncommon, which involve nothing more than a ‘disappointed expectation when a plea of guilt is not productive of the light sentence confidently expected.’ ” Verdon v. United States, 296 F.2d 549, 553 (8th Cir. 1961).1

In Civil 16773, Warren W. Ketchum seeks release from federal custody and his present confinement in the Atlanta Penitentiary pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255. In Criminal 26908, Ketchum has moved to be permitted to withdraw his pleas of guilty, pursuant to Rule 32(d) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which provides, inter alia, that “to correct manifest injustice the court after sentence may set aside the judgment of conviction and permit the defendant to withdraw his plea.” At a consolidated hearing, held in both cases in December, 1966, and lasting approximately five court days, testimony was heard from seventeen persons, including Ketchum; Frances Irene Stanley, who is currently serving a federal sentence imposed at the same time as Ketchum was sentenced in Criminal 26908, in United States v. Frances Irene Stanley, Criminal 26901, D.C. Md., April 30, 1965 (Mrs. Stanley, though never married to Ketchum, is referred to by him as his wife); three Oklahoma City police officers; five F. B.I. agents stationed at one or more times in Oklahoma City or Baltimore; the Assistant Superintendent of Education at the Atlanta Penitentiary; an assistant to that official; and a consulting psychologist at that institution. Ketch-um was ably represented during the hearing by court-appointed counsel who has filed an exhaustive seventy-one page, post-hearing memorandum on both the facts and the law. The Court is most grateful to him and to Government counsel for their thorough presentations both during and after the hearing.

In the section 2255 case Ketchum bases his position upon the denial of certain of his constitutional rights. In the alternative, in the criminal case, he seeks to have his conviction set aside and to withdraw his guilty pleas in Criminal 26908. For the reasons stated in this opinion this Court will not grant relief in either case and hereby denies the petition in Civil 16773 and the motion in Criminal 26908.

Ketchum was born in Virginia in 1920. His formal education ceased at the age of sixteen when he dropped out of school. At the age of sixteen or seventeen he was convicted in Virginia of burglary and committed to the State Board of Welfare. In 1939 he received a three-year suspended sentence for violation of the Dyer Act, violated his parole and served eighteen months at Petersburg. Thereafter he [899]*899served in federal institutions for Dyer Act violations, in San Quentin for burglary and forgery in California, and in Virginia for forgery. His record includes several escapes. He was wanted in Virginia as a parole violator when apprehended in connection with this case. He had spent a considerable portion of his life prior to his sentencing in Criminal 26908 in confinement institutions. Ketchum can read and write, and has an I.Q. of 119. He is described by Dr. Bryan, consulting psychologist at the Atlanta Penitentiary, as of “almost superior intelligence.” Counsel for defendant objected to the ruling of this Court during the December, 1966 hearing, pursuant to which the Court permitted Dr. Bryan to express his opinion that, on April 30, 1965 (the date Ketchum was sentenced in Criminal 26908), Ketchum had the mental capacity to understand the proceedings conducted that day in this Court. At that time Judge Harrison L. Winter, then a United States District Judge, accepted pleas of guilty by Ketch-um to both counts of a two-count indictment and sentenced Ketchum to eight years on the first count and seven years on the second count, the terms to run consecutively.

Ketchum’s counsel contends that Dr. Bryan’s opinion rests upon an insufficient factual basis and that, in addition, Dr. Bryan’s expression of expert opinion upon the ultimate issue usurped this Court’s fact-finding function. This Court finds that a proper foundation was laid by the Government for Dr. Bryan’s testimony. Dr. Bryan had before him the Atlanta and the prior prison records and test results of Ketchum. Also, before taking the witness stand, Dr. Bryan observed Ketchum for several days during the December 1966 hearing and heard him testify at length. As to the “ultimate question” objection, it has been rejected “as a dogmatic rule” by the Fourth Circuit in Meredith v. United States, 238 F.2d 535, 543 (4th Cir. 1956) and cases cited therein. This Court holds that it has the right to give weight and ention to Dr. Bryan’s testimony. But even without so doing, this Court, after reading the transcript of the proceedings on April 30, 1965, after listening to Ketchum testify in the December 1966 hearing on direct examination and on cross-examination, and after observing him in the courtroom during that hearing and noting his participation at the trial table through note-taking and consultation with his attorney, has no difficulty whatsoever in concluding that Ketchum clearly had the capacity to understand, and in fact understood, the careful detailed explanations which Judge Winter made to him; the nature of his own guilty pleas; the maximum sentences which were possible; and the historical recital of his own criminal record.

The cases involving Ketchum (Criminal 26908) and Mrs. Stanley (Criminal 26901) involved violations of 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 2314 and 2 in connection with the same matter, and were called together for arraignment in this Court on April 30, 1965 before Judge Winter. Separate indictments had been returned because Mrs. Stanley was in custody and Mr. Ketchum was not when Mrs. Stanley was indicted. Ketchum was later taken into custody in Oklahoma City and the indictment against him followed.

Judge Winter first questioned both defendants concerning their lack of representation by counsel:

THE COURT: Is either defendant represented by counsel? Do you have an attorney, Mrs. Stanley ?
DEFENDANT STANLEY: No, I do not.
THE COURT: Are you intending to obtain an attorney?
DEFENDANT STANLEY: No sir, I was not.
THE COURT: Is this because you are unable to afford one?
DEFENDANT STANLEY: It is because I wish to plead guilty.
THE COURT: If you wanted an attorney, could you afford to employ one, Mrs. Stanley?
DEFENDANT STANLEY: Yes, sir.
[900]*900THE COURT: But you feel that you do not want one?
DEFENDANT STANLEY: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: Now, Mrs. Stanley, I do not know whether you were in the courtroom when I was trying to explain to one of the other defendants before me this morning, but in the trial of a criminal case, there are always two issues, or there may be two issues.

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Related

Ketchum v. United States
327 F. Supp. 768 (D. Maryland, 1970)

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Bluebook (online)
272 F. Supp. 897, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-ketchum-mdd-1967.