United States v. Quinn

69 F. Supp. 488, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1945
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedDecember 9, 1946
DocketNo. 32351
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 69 F. Supp. 488 (United States v. Quinn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Quinn, 69 F. Supp. 488, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1945 (N.D. Ill. 1946).

Opinion

BARNES, District Judge.

The facts in this case are relatively simple and there is little dispute concerning them, with the exception of one item.

The petitioner, Raymond G. Quinn, was on March 26, 1934, sentenced by a judge of this court and committed to the custody of the Attorney General for a period of ten years for thefts from hall letter boxes. On February 12, 1940, petitioner was released on parole from the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. The Parole Executive in Washington, acting on information obtained by means of a letter from an anonymous inmate of Leavenworth Penitentiary, and after communicating with the chief probation officer at Chicago, and through him arranging for the co-operation of a postal inspector at Chicago, procured from a member of the United States Parole Board, on June 28, 1940, the issuance of a parole violator’s warrant for petitioner. This warrant was sent to the United States Marshal at Chicago, and, as appears from a notation thereon, was by him received on July 8, 1940, and, as appears from a further notation thereon, was, by the marshal or someone on his behalf, delivered to a deputy marshal by name Russell for service on July 9, 1940. About 2:30 o’clock on the morning of August 3, 1940, petitioner was arrested by police officers of the City of Chicago, and was by them taken to the Sheffield Avenue Police Station in the City of Chicago, where, petitioner, having made inquiry why he was arrested and being held, was told by the captain in charge that he did not know why petitioner was arrested but that he was being turned over to the United States Government for violation of parole. The Police Department notified the chief probation officer at Chicago that Quinn was in custody. The chief probation officer notified the United States Marshal and the post-office inspector that Quinn was in custody, and communicated with the police officers who had Quinn in custody and requested them to hold him. The petitioner was taken to another police station (11th Street Station) in Chicago, where he was interviewed by a United States postal inspector on Saturday, August 4, 1940. Petitioner continued to be held by the police officers of the city of Chicago until the afternoon of Monday, August 6th, when, after he had been persuaded to sign a confession, he was taken to the United States Court House in Chicago and either, by a post of[489]*489fice inspector or a deputy of the marshal (other than Deputy Marshal Russell) taken to the office of the United States Commissioner, in the United States Court House at Chicago, and there charged with another theft from a hall letter box. After the new complaint was read to the petitioner by the United States Commissioner, he went, in the company of two deputy marshals,' from the Commissioner’s office to the marshal’s office.

The controversy in respect of the facts involves the question as to whether or not the Parole Board’s warrant was served upon the petitioner in the Commissioner’s office by Deputy Marshal Russell. The petitioner testified that the Parole Board’s warrant was read to him in the Commissioner’s office by Deputy Marshal Russell. Subsequently, when a controversy arose in Leavenworth penitentiary as to whether or not the writ had been served upon him, the petitioner told a deputy warden of that penitentiary of certain writing on the back of the warrant, of which petitioner could not have had knowledge unless he had seen the warrant, and the only opportunity he had had to see it was in the Commissioner’s office in Chicago. Deputy Russell testified that he had no recollection as to whether he had or had not read the warrant to petitioner. He-was led to testify that he had not served it, but, upon cross-examination, it appeared that that testimony was based upon the fact that his return did not appear on the back of the warrant, and, accordingly, his answer that he had not served it was stricken out. Deputy Marshal Wohlers who was the other deputy marshal in the Commissioner’s office at the time, had no recollection as to whether or not the Parole Board’s warrant had been read to the petitioner. The post-office inspector, who made the charge against the petitioner, of which petitioner was advised by the reading to him of the complaint by the United States Commissioner, did not know and could not testify as to whether the Parole Board’s warrant had been read to petitioner or not.

The petitioner was indicted by a grand jury impaneled and sworn for the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Illinois, for the offense for which he was taken before the United States Commissioner as aforesaid. Petitioner appeared before the court upon his arraignment without counsel. Counsel was appointed for him, and he pleaded guilty. The court was informed .of petitioner’s record as an offender, and was further informed that he still had approximately four years and two months to-serve of the ten-year sentence which hacheen imposed upon him previously. Thereupon, on August 26,1940, the court rendered a sentence, whereby the court directed that the petitioner be committed to the custody of the Attorney General for a period of five years, and by its order further directed that the said sentence of five years run concurrently with the unexpired portion of the sentence imposed on petitioner in the earlier case, — that case being described by its number and reference to the court rendering it. Shortly thereafter, the Parole Executive, who at that time worked partly under the supervision of the Director of the Bureau of Prisons and partly under the Parole Board, sent a telegram to the United States Marshal for the Northern District of Illinois, directing him to return the Parole Board’s warrant for petitioner “unexecuted.” The chief deputy marshal, who afterwards became and now is one of the Assistant United States District Attorneys opposing petitioner’s efforts to be discharged on habeas corpus, returned the Parole Board’s warrant to the Parole Board or to the Parole Executive and did not cause to be placed thereon any return of the service of the writ by Deputy Marshal. Russell. This court issued a commitment on the five-year sentence and sent the commitment, together with a certified copy of the judgment order and the petitioner, to the Warden of the Leavenworth penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas (presumably,, the Attorney General had designated that penitentiary as the place of confinement of the petitioner). Both the original commitment, which bears the return of the marshal and which is on file in the office of the clerk of this court, and the certified copy of the judgment order imposing the five-year sentence, affirmatively show that the five-year' term was to run concurrently with the un-expired portion of the ten-year term theretofore imposed, and both papers show the-number of the earlier case and identify the [490]*490court imposing that sentence. When the petitioner reached Leavenworth penitentiary, or soon thereafter, it was decided by the prison authorities that the court had exceeded its authority in ordering the five-year term to run concurrently with the unexpired portion of the ten-year term, and, that accordingly, that part of the court’s judgment should be disregarded.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
69 F. Supp. 488, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1945, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-quinn-ilnd-1946.