Keenan v. McGrath

• Decision Date: 09 March 1964
• Docket Number: No. 6291.,6291.
• Citation: Keenan v. McGrath, 328 F.2d 610 (1st Cir. 1964)
• Parties: Edward P. KEENAN, Jr., Plaintiff, Appellant, v. George F. McGRATH et al., Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

328 F.2d 610 (1964)

Edward P. KEENAN, Jr., Plaintiff, Appellant, v.George F. McGRATH et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 6291.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

March 9, 1964.

Before WOODBURY, Chief Judge, and HARTIGAN and ALDRICH, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Edward P. Keenan, Jr., a prisoner confined in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at South Walpole, asks this court to appoint counsel to prosecute his appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissing a complaint filed by him pro se in that court.An examination of the record discloses that although his complaint was docketed as a civil action, Keenan alleges therein that "the nature of his action is on the Criminal Side," and this assertion is supported by the fact that Keenan does not ask for any civil remedy, such as damages or an injunction, but instead charges the defendants, who are correctional officers of the Commonwealth, with conspiring to deprive him of rights and privileges secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 241 and interfering with the mail in violation of §§ 1700,1701and1708id.The court below, treating the complaint as seeking criminal prosecution of officers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, dismissed it on the ground that it had not been made upon oath before a United States Commissioner or other officer empowered to commit persons charged with federal offenses, and for the further reason that it did not appear from the...