Reese v. White

• Decision Date: 13 March 1928
• Docket Number: No. 7926.,7926.
• Citation: 25 F.2d 65
• Parties: REESE v. WHITE, Warden.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

25 F.2d 65 (1928)

REESE v. WHITE, Warden.

No. 7926.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

March 13, 1928.

L. E. Wyman, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Hutchinson, Kan. (Al F. Williams, U. S. Atty., and Alton H. Skinner, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Topeka, Kan., on the brief), for appellee.

Before KENYON and VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judges, and JOHN B. SANBORN, District Judge.

VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judge.

April 15, 1925, appellant pleaded guilty in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Michigan, at Detroit, upon an indictment containing one count charging:

"That heretofore, to wit, on the 3d day of January, A. D. 1925, at the city of Detroit, in the county of Wayne, in the Southern division of the Eastern district of Michigan, and within the jurisdiction of this honorable court, said Otis Reese and James Bazzill, both late of the city of Detroit aforesaid, did then and there unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly purchase certain quantities of opium and coco leaves, their compounds, preparations, salt, and derivative of opium, to wit, 322 grains of morphine hydrochloride, being a derivative of opium, and 385 grains of cocaine hydrochloride, being a derivative of coco leaves, said narcotic drugs when so purchased not being in the original stamped packages, and not being from original stamped packages having on them the appropriate cancelled United States Internal Revenue Stamps, as required by law, contrary to the form, force, and effect of the act of Congress in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States."

He was sentenced to be imprisoned in the United States penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan., for a period of four years. He seeks to be discharged upon writ of habeas corpus upon the grounds that the sentence is excessive, illegal, and void, and that the court was without jurisdiction to impose the same; that the facts charged in the indictment constitute no offense against the laws of the United States; that the charge is so vague and indefinite as to constitute no bar to a subsequent prosecution for the same offense; and that petitioner is, therefore, being deprived of his liberty without due process of law, in contravention of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

The prosecution is brought under the Act of Congress approved December 17, 1914, as amended (26 USCA §§ 211, 691-707; Comp. St. §§ 6287g-6287q), which, among other things, provides that it shall be unlawful for any person to purchase, sell, dispense, or distribute any of the drugs, including that charged in this indictment, except in the original stamped package, or from the original stamped package. Under this act the court had authority to impose a sentence of five years, or a fine of $2,000, or both such fine and imprisonment; therefore the sentence imposed is clearly not excessive, nor beyond the authority and jurisdiction of the court.

The indictment contains all the essential elements of the offense. It was challenged neither by motion to quash nor demurrer. Appellant made no application...