Coleman v. Peyton

• Decision Date: 08 January 1965
• Docket Number: No. 9642.,9642.
• Citation: Coleman v. Peyton, 340 F.2d 603 (4th Cir. 1965)
• Parties: J. Ferber COLEMAN, Appellant, v. Courtland C. PEYTON, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

340 F.2d 603 (1965)

J. Ferber COLEMAN, Appellant, v.Courtland C. PEYTON, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary, Appellee.

No. 9642.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued January 5, 1965.

Decided January 8, 1965.

Ronald P. Sokol, Charlottesville, Va. (Court-assigned counsel), for appellant.

Reno S. Harp, III, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Virginia (Robert Y. Button, Atty. Gen. of Virginia, on brief), for appellee.

Before HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge, and SOBELOFF and J. SPENCER BELL, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal from the district court's denial, without an evidential hearing, of the petitioner's pro se petition requesting an order commanding the prison officials of the Commonwealth of Virginia to cease and desist from interfering with his rights to use the United States mails.The prisoner's petition alleges in substance that the respondent has refused to mail his letters addressed to the N.A.A.C.P. and the Office of the Attorney General of the United States seeking legal assistance.In addition he asserts that some enclosures were extracted by prison authorities without his knowledge or approval from certain of his letters which were mailed.Finally, the petitioner claims that he"is being denied his right of access to the courts" and that he has been "subjected to personal reprisals" for seeking to acquire counsel to assert his rights under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983and28 U.S.C.A. § 1343(3).

Some of these allegations are concededly rather vague and general, and the petition contains no particularized statement of background facts and conduct.However,...