Blood v. Hunter

• Decision Date: 25 June 1945
• Docket Number: No. 3124.,3124.
• Citation: 150 F.2d 640
• Parties: BLOOD v. HUNTER, Warden.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

150 F.2d 640 (1945)

BLOOD v. HUNTER, Warden.

No. 3124.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

June 25, 1945.

James R. Blood, pro se.

Eugene W. Davis, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Topeka, Kan. (Randolph Carpenter, U. S. Atty., of Topeka, Kan., on the brief), for appellee.

Before PHILLIPS, BRATTON, and MURRAH, Circuit Judges.

MURRAH, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order denying discharge in a habeas corpus proceedings.

In October, 1934, two indictments were returned in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, against petitioner and a codefendant. The first indictment contained four counts, charging petitioner with forging and counterfeiting the signature of the postmaster at Catoosa, Oklahoma, on two postal money orders, and with having passed, uttered and published the respective money orders, all in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 347. The second indictment charged petitioner with burglary of the post office at Catoosa, in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 315. Petitioner entered pleas of guilty to all counts in both indictments and was sentenced to five years on each count in the first indictment, to run consecutively, and to a term of five years on the only count in the second indictment, to begin at the expiration of the sentence imposed under the first, making a total sentence of twenty-five years.

Previously, in October, 1939, petitioner sought his release by habeas corpus proceedings in the same trial court, alleging that he was deprived of his constitutional right to the assistance of counsel. The trial court found that petitioner intelligently and competently waived his right to counsel and this court affirmed. Blood v. Hudspeth, 10 Cir., 113 F.2d 470.

Apparently encouraged by the pronouncements of the Supreme Court in McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 63 S.Ct. 608, 87 L.Ed. 819, the petitioner commenced this proceedings on August 14, 1944, and in order to bring himself within the rationale of that case alleged that after his arrest on July 13, 1934, he was held in jail until the following October 11, without being taken before any judicial officer for arraignment, and that while being so detained a confession was taken and used against him in the trial of his case. He does not allege that the confession was obtained by threats or coercion, but rests his case solely upon the contention that the failure of the arresting officers to immediately take him before a committing officer for arraignment, as provided by 18 U.S.C. A. § 595,¹ and the use of the confession obtained before arraignment, constituted grounds for release under the doctrine of the McNabb case.

On these issues the trial court conducted an appropriate inquiry, at which the petitioner testified in substance that after being arrested in Oklahoma City on July 13, 1934, by the City Police he was taken to the city jail and turned over to the Postal Inspector, and at that time gave a written confession of his guilt. That on the following day he entered a plea of guilty to an indictment theretofore returned against him in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, charging violation of the Federal mail fraud statute (18 U. S.C.A. § 338) and was thereupon sentenced to a term of five years. That...