Morton v. Welch, 5621.
| Decision Date | 20 June 1947 |
| Docket Number | No. 5621.,5621. |
| Citation | 162 F.2d 840 |
| Parties | MORTON v. WELCH. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
John W. Morton, pro se.
George R. Humrickhouse, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Richmond, Va. (Harry H. Holt, Jr., U. S. Atty, of Hampton, on the brief), for appellee.
Before SOPER and DOBIE, Circuit Judges, and CHESNUT, District Judge.
The appellant in this habeas corpus case was indicted, tried and convicted in the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia, for the crime of second-degree murder. The verdict was rendered on December 6, 1943. A motion for a new trial was made and overruled. He was then sentenced to a term in prison of from fifteen years to life. In due course he appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where, on January 22, 1945, the judgment was affirmed. Morton v. United States, 79 U.S.App.D.C. 329, 147 F.2d 28. At the trial of the case in the District Court, he was represented by counsel of his own selection; and in the Court of Appeals he was represented by counsel appointed by the District Court to prosecute the appeal.
Thereafter, he filed a petition for habeas corpus in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, on which the District Judge issued a rule against the appellee to show cause, on June 27, 1946. The District Judge also appointed counsel to represent the petitioner at the hearing. After answer by the appellee, evidence was heard by the Court with respect to an issue of fact raised by amendment of the petition and thereafter the District Judge filed a memorandum opinion and subsequently an order, discharging the writ and dismissing the petition. From that order this appeal has been taken.
In his very lengthy and largely argumentative petition for the writ, the appellant challenges the validity of the judgment and sentence under which he is held in custody on very numerous grounds. The principal contentions are:
(1) The trial court was without jurisdiction to try the case under an alleged illegal indictment;
(2) The petit jury was selected in the absence of the defendant and his counsel;
(3) His trial counsel, by reason of personal preoccupation owing to recent notice of induction under the Selective Service Act, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 301 et seq., was unable to effectively try the case; and
(4) Errors of the trial judge in the admission of evidence, instructions to the jury and failure to dismiss the case for insufficiency of evidence, which was largely circumstantial in nature.
On the record before us and after consideration of the appellant's brief and oral argument of counsel for the appellee, we find no legal merit in the appellant's contentions on this appeal.
The point made with respect to the sufficiency of the indictment is that the prosecution should have been by the District of Columbia and not by the United States. This contention is untenable in view of the applicable provisions of the District of Columbia Code of 1940. It provides (Title 23, Section 101) that prosecutions for violations of municipal ordinances or regulations and penal statutes of that nature, where the maximum punishment is a fine only or imprisonment not to exceed one year, shall be conducted in the name of the District of Columbia, but "All other criminal prosecutions shall be conducted in the name of the United States and by the attorney of the United States for the District of Columbia or his assistants."
Title 22, Section 2404 of that Code provides that punishment for murder in the second degree shall be by imprisonment for life or not less than twenty years. And by Title 11, Section 306 of the Code, the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia was given jurisdiction of all crimes and offenses committed within the District, with exceptions not here material. As the homicide in this case occurred in the District of...
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State ex rel. Clark v. Adams, 11075
...6 Cir., 250 F.2d 654; Ex Parte Haumesch, C.C.A., 9 Cir., 82 F.2d 558; Maye v. Pescor, C.C.A., 8 Cir., 162 F.2d 641; Morton v. Welch, C.C.A., 4 Cir., 162 F.2d 840. See also Banach v. Hunter, C.C.A., 10 Cir., 161 F.2d It is well established by the decisions of this Court that a person serving......
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...178, certiorari denied 310 U.S. 640, 60 S.Ct. 1086, 84 L.Ed. 1408; Koch v. United States, 4 Cir., 150 F.2d 762, 763." Morton v. Welch, 4 Cir., 162 F.2d 840, at page 842; and see Buchalter v. New York, 319 U.S. 427, at page 430, 63 S.Ct. 1129, 87 L.Ed. "The sole inquiry which we are permitte......
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