Chapman v. Scott

Citation10 F.2d 690
Decision Date15 February 1926
Docket NumberNo. 301.,301.
PartiesCHAPMAN v. SCOTT, Warden.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)

Frederick J. Groehl, of New York City, for plaintiff in error.

Hugh M. Alcorn and Reinhart L. Gideon, both of Hartford, Conn., for defendant in error.

George H. Cohen, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Hartford, Conn., amicus curiæ.

Before MANTON, HAND, and MACK, Circuit Judges.

MANTON, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff in error was convicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for mail robbery, and was sentenced to 25 years in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga. He began service of his sentence on August 25, 1922, and on March 27, 1923, he escaped from the penitentiary, and was captured the next day and placed in a hospital at Athens, Ga. He escaped from that institution on April 4, 1923, but was recaptured on January 18, 1925, at Muncie, Ind., and returned to the federal prison at Atlanta, Ga. On October 12, 1924, while at large, he murdered a police officer at New Britain, Conn. After a trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. This judgment was affirmed on appeal by the Supreme Court of Errors, the highest court of the state of Connecticut. 130 A. 899. After recapture and return to the penitentiary at Atlanta, the Attorney General of the United States, by letter, ordered his transfer to a state prison at Wethersfield, Conn. On February 13, 1925, the superior court of Connecticut, upon application of the state's attorney for the county where the murder was committed, and upon the consent of the United States attorney for the district of Connecticut, issued a writ of habeas corpus, requiring the warden of the state prison to produce the prisoner to plead to the indictment of murder in the state court. The Attorney General also consented to the issuance of this writ. No objection was made to the application for the writ, nor was the jurisdiction of the court in any way questioned, and a plea of not guilty was entered.

On November 23, 1925, the President of the United States issued a document reciting that the plaintiff in error had been convicted of mail robbery, his sentence, his escape, recapture, and second escape from the hospital at Athens, Ga., and recapture and reincarceration in the federal penitentiary; that he had been removed by consent of the Attorney General to the Connecticut state prison at Wethersfield, Conn., and then recited that, whereas, it appeared that the ends of justice would be served by a commutation of sentence, the President in consideration of all the premises, commuted the imprisonment to the term of the sentence already served. When this commutation, through this executive order, was offered to the plaintiff in error by the warden of the Connecticut state prison, he refused to accept it.

After the affirmance of conviction for murder in the state court, the plaintiff in error obtained from the District Court for the District of Connecticut, a writ of habeas corpus, praying that he be produced before the court, and that an order be entered directing that he be remanded to the custody of the keeper of the penitentiary at Atlanta, and that the state authorities be prevented from keeping control or custody of the prisoner, and otherwise be prevented from carrying out the execution of the state court sentence. The District Court dismissed the writ and remanded the prisoner to the custody and control of the defendant in error, the warden of the state prison at Wethersfield, Conn., to be dealt with according to law.

It is urged that error was committed below in the failure to hold that it was unlawful to transfer the relator to the Connecticut state prison. Section 10547 of the Compiled Statutes gives authority to the Attorney General to change the place of imprisonment of a federal prisoner, and, while there is no expressed provision authorizing the transfer of a federal prisoner to a state prison, the power exists...

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23 cases
  • State v. Reed
    • United States
    • Connecticut Supreme Court
    • 28 February 1978
    ...the other judges concurred. 1 Repealed October 1, 1971.2 To the same effect is Chapman v. Scott, 10 F.2d 156 (D.Conn.), affirmed 10 F.2d 690 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 270 U.S. 657, 46 S.Ct. 354, 70 L.Ed. 784, a case in which the facts reveal that Gerald Chapman was transferred from federal j......
  • Schick v. Reed 8212 5677
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • 23 December 1974
    ...States ex rel. Brazier v. Commissioner of Immigration, 5 F.2d 162 (CA2 1924); Chapman v. Scott, 10 F.2d 156, 159 (Conn.1925), aff'd, 10 F.2d 690 (CA2), cert. denied, 270 U.S. 657, 46 S.Ct. 354, 70 L.Ed. 784 (1926); Note, Executive Clemency in Capital Cases, 39 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 136, 138 (1964); ......
  • United States v. Gernie
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York
    • 8 April 1964
    ...602-603 (2 Cir.), cert. den., 344 U.S. 838 (1952); Chapman v. Scott, 10 F.2d 156, 159 (D.Conn.1925), (alternative holding), aff'd, 10 F.2d 690 (2 Cir.), cert. den., 270 U.S. 657, 46 S.Ct. 354, 70 L.Ed. 784 (1926). It is well settled that in a criminal proceeding lack of subject matter juris......
  • State v. Long
    • United States
    • Oregon Supreme Court
    • 21 May 1952
    ... ... The motion for a continuance was denied. Upon this issue the following cases were cited by the defendant: Chapman v. Scott, D.C., 10 F.2d 156, affirmed, 2 Cir., 10 F.2d 690, and Ponzi v. Fessenden, 258 U.S. 254, 42 S.Ct. 309, 66 L.Ed. 607. In both cases a ... ...
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