United States v. Walgren

695 F. Supp. 495, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9973, 1988 WL 93677
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedSeptember 7, 1988
DocketNo. CR80-126M
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 695 F. Supp. 495 (United States v. Walgren) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Walgren, 695 F. Supp. 495, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9973, 1988 WL 93677 (W.D. Wash. 1988).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTIONS TO VACATE CONVICTIONS AND FOR NEW TRIAL

McGOVERN, District Judge.

ORDER

Eight years after the convictions of defendant on racketeering, mail fraud, and Travel Act charges, it is recommended to the District Court that the racketeering and mail fraud convictions may not stand under new case law and must be vacated owing to their possible impact on any future criminal convictions.

Moreover, years after these convictions were affirmed on appeal, it is recommended that the District Court consider the materiality of defendant’s “newly-discovered evidence” and ignore the two-year limitations period for such motions because an open-ended continuance of the motion was granted three years ago.

The Court declines to follow these recommendations.

I. WRIT OF ERROR CORAM NOBIS UNAVAILABLE

The Report and Recommendation explains that a coram nobis writ is available only to correct errors of law or fact of a fundamental nature, “such as rendered the proceeding itself invalid.” Hirabayashi v. United States, 828 F.2d 591, 604 (9th Cir.1987), and that the petitioner must also demonstrate that “adverse consequences exist from the conviction sufficient to satisfy the case or controversy requirement of Article III.” Id. There are required additional threshold showings that (1) a more usual remedy is not available, and that (2) valid reasons exist for not attacking the conviction earlier. Id.

While no other remedy is available to Defendant Walgren now, he has not shown the presence of the remaining three elements necessary to qualify for coram no-bis relief.

A. NO VALID REASONS FOR NOT ATTACKING CONVICTION EARLIER

The question of whether Defendant Walgren may at this late date have his conviction reviewed and vacated based on the holding in McNally v. United States, - U.S. -, 107 S.Ct. 2875, 97 L.Ed.2d 292 (1987) concerning the scope of the Mail Fraud Statute when he did not raise the issue himself in his appeals must be answered “no” pursuant to the Supreme Court’s decision in Sunal v. Large, 332 U.S. 174, 67 S.Ct. 1588, 91 L.Ed. 1982 (1947). Sunal held that defendants may not collaterally attack convictions that under later Supreme Court precedent would have been invalid if they had not raised the issues on direct appeal that they sought to raise in their collateral attacks. Thus, McNally may not be applied retroactively in Walgren’s case because he has shown neither that (1) he did raise the issue of the scope of the Mail Fraud Statute in his appeals, nor that (2) he had a valid reason for not doing so. The Report and Recommendation distinguished Sunal saying the change of law therein was procedural and not substantive as in McNally; instead, Davis v. United States, 417 U.S. 333, 345-46, 94 S.Ct. 2298, 2304-05, 41 L.Ed.2d 109 (1974) was cited for the retroactive application of McNally. The procedural versus substantive law distinction drawn by the Magistrate is not significant to Sunal’s holding. There is a crucial difference between Davis and Sunal, which the Davis court recognized: there was an appeal of the issue in question in Davis while in Sunal there was not. Referring to Sunal, Davis observed: “The Court was careful to point out that ‘if Sunal and Kulick had pursued the appellate course and failed, their cases would be quite different.’ ” Davis, 417 U.S. at 345, 94 S.Ct. at 2304.

[497]*497The Magistrate also reviewed lower court decisions from various jurisdictions dealing with the specific issue of McNally’s retroactivity. The decisions were split, and he followed the opinion in Ingber v. Enzor, 841 F.2d 450 (2d Cir.1988). The Defendant in Ingber challenged his conviction of February 1987 by a petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 filed shortly after the McNally decision, and on July 15, 1987, the Trial Court reversed Ingber’s convictions pursuant to McNally. The Trial Court’s rationale was that the Court lacked authority to convict or punish the conduct charged, for it was not criminal under McNally. There is no indication whether the issue in his § 2255 petition was asserted on appeal.

Taking the opposite view, the Court in United States v. Smith, 675 F.Supp. 978 (M.D.Pa.) cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1031, 107 S.Ct. 877, 93 L.Ed.2d 832 (1987), characterized the conclusion in McNally as a new interpretation of a statute and, citing Sunal, questioned McNally’s application in a collateral attack where the defendant did not raise the issue of statutory interpretation in the Trial Court or in his direct appeals:

In Sunal v. Large, 332 U.S. 174 [67 S.Ct. 1588, 91 L.Ed. 1982] (1947), the United States Supreme Court held that defendants may not collaterally attack convictions that under later Supreme Court precedent would have been invalid because they had not raised the issues on direct appeal which they sought to raise in their collateral attack.

Smith, 675 F.Supp. at 980.

There is legitimate concern for finality in criminal prosecutions behind the Smith and Sunal decisions. Criminal jurisprudence is in constant flux. Principles of law are clarified and refined as countless permutations of circumstances are presented in cases before the Courts. The Courts could count on little repose for decided cases if new cases were applied retroactively regardless of whether the earlier defendants raised the newly determined issue. Indeed, in Sunal the Justices observed, “We are dealing here with a problem which has radiations far beyond the present cases,” 332 U.S. at 181, 67 S.Ct. at 1592, and reasoned:

If defendants who accept the judgment of conviction and do not appeal can later renew their attack on the judgment by habeas corpus, litigation in these criminal cases will be interminable. Wise judicial administration of the federal courts counsels against such course, at least where the error does not trench on any constitutional rights of defendants nor involve the jurisdiction of the trial court.

Id. at 182, 67 S.Ct. at 1593. In Walgren’s case, the error does not trench on any constitutional rights nor involve the Trial Court’s jurisdiction; it concerns only a non-constitutional reinterpretation of a statute.

Defendant Walgren is attacking his conviction based on a United States Supreme Court decision issued many years later even though he has failed to show that he raised the issue in the Trial Court or on appeal or that he had a valid reason for not doing so. This he may not do under Sunal. Even if Defendant Walgren were to argue that an appeal on this issue did not appear viable in view of the jurisprudence extant,

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Related

United States v. Gordon Walgren
885 F.2d 1417 (Ninth Circuit, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
695 F. Supp. 495, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9973, 1988 WL 93677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-walgren-wawd-1988.