William Oscar Timms, Jr. v. United States

403 F.2d 879, 1968 U.S. App. LEXIS 4779
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedNovember 22, 1968
Docket25959_1
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 403 F.2d 879 (William Oscar Timms, Jr. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
William Oscar Timms, Jr. v. United States, 403 F.2d 879, 1968 U.S. App. LEXIS 4779 (5th Cir. 1968).

Opinion

JOHNSON, District Judge:

This is an appeal from a conviction by jury verdict on an indictment charging an attempt to escape from the custody of the Attorney General in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 751. At the time of the alleged attempt, appellant was serving a twenty-year sentence for bank robbery. It is not disputed that Timms was found outside of his assigned cell and near the prison wall with a crude steel ladder approximately forty feet in length. Indeed, appellant called other participants in the attempt to testify concerning his role. The sole issues on appeal are the correctness of the trial court’s charge to the jury on the question of insanity and the correctness of the trial court’s conclusion that there was sufficient admissible evidence that Timms was legally confined in the prison from which he escaped.

I

Timms was examined by a psychiatrist, Dr. Juan Mascort, prior to trial. Dr. Mascort’s testimony and examination report comprised the principal evidence at trial on the insanity issue. The able and experienced trial judge correctly concluded from this testimony that there was no evidence that the defendant was insane from the standpoint of “the right and wrong” test and did not submit the issue to the jury. He did charge the jury, however, that they should find Timms not guilty if he acted under an irresistible impulse which was the result of a diseased mind. 1 Timms’ counsel had requested that the trial judge give one of two proposed charges on the insanity issue. The first proposal was an amalgam of the right and wrong test, the so-called McNaghten Rule, and the irresistible impulse test. 2 The second proposal is that found in the Model Penal Code of the American Law Institute and apparently adopted by the Seventh Circuit. 3 United States v. Shapiro, 383 F.2d 680, 686 (7th Cir. 1967). Appellant’s argument is essentially that it was error for the court to separate the McNaghten charge from the irresistible impulse charge. If, the argument goes, there was evidence requiring the jury to pass upon the issue of irresistible impulse, then the court was *881 also required to submit the McNaghten issue to the jury. We disagree.

In Howard v. United States, 232 F.2d 274, 276 (5th Cir. 1956) this Court developed the following distinction:

“The district court further erred in its charge in requiring the defendant to adduce proof both that he did not know the difference between right and wrong and that he was unable to refrain from doing wrong. Either condition existing at the time of the commission of the act and as the result of some mental defect or disease was sufficient to make the defendant not guilty.” (Emphasis in original.)

That distinction recognizes the difference between diseases or defects affecting cognition, to which the McNaghten rule relates, and those affecting volition, 4 to which the irresistible impulse charge is directed. Where, as here, what little evidence there was tended only to show a volitional disorder, it was not error to restrict the jury to that theory. Timms received at least as favorable a charge as the evidence warranted.

II

A conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 751 requires proof not only of an escape or attempted escape but also of a conviction and confinement pursuant to that conviction. The Government introduced two documents in an effort to prove these elements. The first was an exemplified copy of appellant’s Judgment and Commitment, properly authenticated pursuant to Rule 44(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and 28 U.S.C. § 1733, which apparently showed the United States Marshal’s return, required by 18 U.S.C. § 4084, 5 on its face. This exhibit was admitted without objection under the terms of Rule 27, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure which provides: “An official record or an entry therein or the lack of such a record or entry may be proved in the same manner as in civil actions.”

The second exhibit offered and admitted on the question of conviction and confinement was a certified copy of the same original Judgment and Commitment which had been delivered by the United States Marshal to the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta, Georgia, at the time of Timms’ commitment, as required by 18 U.S.C. § 4084, supra. The first document on this question that was offered and, without objection, admitted into evidence clearly established Timms’ conviction. Appellant’s contentions are that such evidence was not by itself sufficient to establish confinement pursuant to that conviction and that the certified copy of the same document was not admissible, and that there was therefore a failure of proof. The argument is not tenable.

In a case such as this where there is no suggestion that the prisoner had been moved, the copy of the Judgment and Commitment bearing the United States Marshal’s return designating Atlanta as the place of confinement is sufficient evidence of confinement pursuant to that conviction. Strickland v. United States, 339 F.2d 866 (10th Cir. 1965); Hardwick v. United States, 296 F.2d 24 (9th Cir. 1961). Mullican v. United States, 252 F.2d 398, 70 A.L.R.2d 1217 (5th Cir. 1958), also supports that rule. In Mullican, there was a copy of the judgment and sentence in Alabama, with an endorsement of the Marshal’s *882 return showing delivery of the defendant Shores to the United States Penitentiary at Atlanta. There was also a copy of judgment and sentence in Texas, and a return of the Marshal showing delivery of the defendant Mullican to the United States Penitentiary at El Reno, Oklahoma. Both were held “properly authenticated” and “properly admitted” into evidence. Mullican, supra, at 401. It seems clear that if the defendants there had escaped from either of the institutions named, there would have been no problem of proof.

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Related

United States v. Donald G. Richardson
687 F.2d 952 (Seventh Circuit, 1982)
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496 F.2d 1314 (Fifth Circuit, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
403 F.2d 879, 1968 U.S. App. LEXIS 4779, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/william-oscar-timms-jr-v-united-states-ca5-1968.