Colson v. Johnston, 23241-W.
| Decision Date | 26 July 1940 |
| Docket Number | No. 23241-W.,23241-W. |
| Citation | 35 F. Supp. 317 |
| Parties | COLSON v. JOHNSTON, Warden. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of California |
Harold C. Faulkner, of San Francisco, Cal., for petitioner.
Frank J. Hennessy, U. S. Atty., and A. J. Zirpoli, Asst. U.S. Atty., both of San Francisco, Cal., for respondent.
Petitioner, James Colson, along with several co-defendants, was indicted during the April term of 1921 in the Western Division of the Northern District of Ohio under Section 197 of the Criminal Code (Title 18 U.S.C., Sec. 320, 18 U.S.C.A. § 320) providing that "Whoever shall assault any person having lawful charge, control, or custody of any mail matter, with intent to rob, steal, or purloin such mail matter or any part thereof, or shall rob any such person of such mail or any part thereof, shall, for a first offense, be imprisoned not more than ten years; and if in effecting or attempting to effect such robbery, he shall wound the person having custody of the mail, or put his life in jeopardy by the use of a dangerous weapon, or for a subsequent offense, shall be imprisoned twenty-five years."
The charges contained in the indictment returned against petitioner and his co-defendants arose out of the perpetration on or about February 17, 1921, at Toledo, Ohio, of a robbery of mail matter from employees of the Post Office Department in charge of the mail, in which robbery several registered and ordinary mail pouches were taken and the lives of the postal employees were put in jeopardy by the use of dangerous weapons.
The indictment contained eleven counts. In the first count, it was charged that at the time and place above stated, petitioner assaulted the postal employees in charge of the mail matter with the intent to rob such mail matter or any part thereof. In the second count, it was charged that at the above stated time and place, petitioner robbed these postal employees of a certain registered mail pouch designated by the number of the lock which secured it and containing mail matter, in the course of which the lives of the employees were placed in jeopardy by the use of dangerous weapons.
The remaining counts of the indictment, numbered third to eleventh, inclusive, contained the identical charges against petitioner that were contained in the second count save that in each later count reference was made to a different mail pouch. All of these several mail pouches, however, referred to in counts two to eleven, formed a part of the mail matter which was taken in the single robbery upon which the charges in the indictment were based.
Petitioner was convicted on all counts and on May 22, 1923, was sentenced to the Federal Penitentiary for a period of 25 years upon the second count of the indictment, this sentence to be served first, and for a period of 10 years on the first count to begin at the termination of the sentence imposed on the second count; and for a period of 25 years upon each of the remaining counts, the 25 year sentence on these remaining counts to be served concurrently and to commence at the termination of the twenty-five year sentence on the second count of the indictment, making a total sentence of 50 years.
Petitioner, now confined at Alcatraz Penitentiary, has fully completed the twenty-five year sentence which he started to serve on May 25, 1923, under the second count by reason of his...
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...a life in jeopardy are not present, the statute provides for a maximum ten-year term. See footnote 3, supra; see also Colson v. Johnston, 35 F.Supp. 317, 318 (N.D.Cal.1940). However, Virella's counsel was not ineffective for failing to request a lesser included offense charge as no such cha......
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Waldon v. United States
...sentence depending upon the manner of the perpetration of the crime. Costner v. United States, 4 Cir., 139 F.2d 429." In Colson v. Johnston, D.C.Cal., 35 F.Supp. 317, defendant was charged with a mail robbery in which several registered and ordinary mail pouches were taken and the lives of ......
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Costner v. United States, 5119.
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