Brown v. Cain, M-1075.

• Decision Date: 14 June 1944
• Docket Number: No. M-1075.,M-1075.
• Citation: 56 F. Supp. 56
• Parties: BROWN, Boatswain's Mate, v. CAIN, Warden.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania

56 F. Supp. 56

BROWN, Boatswain's Mate, v. CAIN, Warden.

No. M-1075.

District Court, E. D. Pennsylvania.

June 14, 1944.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

R. Paul Lessy, Asst. Dist. Atty., of Chester, Pa., and William R. Toal, First Asst. Dist. Atty., and C. William Kraft, Jr., Dist. Atty., both of Media, Pa., for the State of Pennsylvania.

John Diggins, of Chester, Pa., for relator.

Gerald A. Gleeson, U. S. Atty., and J. Barton Rettew, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Philadelphia, Pa., for the Government.

KIRKPATRICK, District Judge.

The relator James H. Brown, a guard, shot and killed a man named Franklin Giddings in the shipyard of the Sun Shipbuilding Dry Dock Co. at Chester, Pennsylvania. He was arrested, indicted by the Grand Jury of Delaware County for murder and was in the custody of the respondent, the warden of the County prison.

He applied for this writ, alleging that he was in custody for an act done in pursuance of a law of the United States, Title 28, Sec. 453, U.S.C.A.

The relator has been since December 21, 1942, an enrolled temporary member of the Coast Guard Reserve, with the rating of Boatswain's Mate, First Class. As such he was a member of the Armed Forces of the United States.

On June 16, 1943, he was on guard duty in the No. 4 yard of the Sun Shipbuilding plant and was at that time in charge of the Coast Guard detail in the area consisting of some 20 enlisted men.

The United States was at war and the Sun Company was engaged in building ships for the government. Brown's duties included suppression of disturbances which might cause damage to machinery and equipment or affect the security of the plant. It follows, and I so find, that any act done by Brown which was reasonably necessary to quell a riot in the area under his charge was done in performance of his duty as a member of the Armed Forces, and hence in pursuance of the law of the United States.

The principles governing the jurisdiction and the discretion of this Court upon habeas corpus proceedings in cases of this kind (specifically cases of government officers charged with killing in the course of making an arrest) may be stated as follows:

The first question is, was the act for which the relator is held, an act done in pursuance of the law of the United States? The answer does not depend upon guilt or innocence of the relator or his amenability to State law had he not been a government officer, but solely upon whether he had authority from the United States to arrest persons guilty of the offense for the commission of which he was trying to make the arrest, whether he had reasonable cause to believe and did honestly believe that the person he shot was guilty of the offense for which he was trying to arrest him, and whether, in attempting to make the arrest he acted within the scope of his authority and used no more force than he honestly and reasonably believed was necessary. Castle v. Lewis, 8 Cir., 254 F. 917. The bare facts that the relator was an officer of the United States authorized to make arrests and shot in the course of making an arrest will not afford him immunity from prosecution under the laws of the State. In re Waite, D.C., 81 F. 359, 363. If he acted wantonly with a criminal intent, then he was not acting in the pursuance of the law of the United States. In re Fair, C.C., 100 F. 149. The inquiry must, therefore, be as to the honesty of the relator's belief that the arrest was justified and that the shooting was reasonably necessary to accomplish it. As in all cases where intent is involved, all the surrounding circumstances must be considered, because if they were such that no reasonable man could believe it necessary to shoot to make the arrest, the relator's testimony as to his motives and belief would have to be disregarded.

The next principle to have in mind is that it is not sufficient that the judge weighing all the testimony comes to the conclusion that the act was in line of duty, necessary and, therefore, in pursuance of the law of the United States. Facts pointing to that conclusion, must be either admitted or uncontradicted or, at least, supported by so great a preponderance of evidence that a reasonable mind construing it can hardly come to any other conclusion. Regardless of the conclusion which the judge himself might reach, if there is a substantial conflict of evidence as to basic or controlling facts the Federal Court should refuse to exercise its discretion to release the relator and should remand him to the custody of the State authorities for trial by the State Court. Drury v. Lewis, 200 U.S. 1, 26 S.Ct. 229, 50 L.Ed. 343.

Lastly, the discretion of the Federal Court is limited by the nature of the occasion upon which its power is invoked. Even though it be clearly proved that the act for which the relator is held was the act of a government officer in pursuance of a law of the United States, he should be remanded to the State Court for trial unless the case is one of urgency where the failure to discharge the prisoner will or may substantially delay the enforcement of the laws of the United States, or seriously interfere with the operation of its government or the administration of its affairs. Castle v. Lewis, supra; Ex parte Royall, 117 U.S. 241, 6 S.Ct. 734, 29 L.Ed. 868.

This brings us to the facts of the case. They are covered in detail in answers to requests, and only the essential ones need be stated.

A riot was in progress. A crowd had collected when Brown, properly, had taken into custody a workman who had refused to show his identification badge. That incident had terminated, but the crowd, instead of dispersing, followed Brown and three other coast guards along a road between two buildings of the plant, demanding satisfaction of some kind for what one or two of their leaders, without the slightest...