Smith v. United States
| Decision Date | 06 December 1960 |
| Docket Number | No. 18474.,18474. |
| Parties | Leroy Edward SMITH, Hubert Donald Smith and Rodger Winston Wagner, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Howard Dailey, Dudley P. Andrews, Dallas, Tex., for appellants.
Minor Morgan, Asst. U. S. Atty., Dallas, Tex., W. B. West, III, U. S. Atty., Fort Worth, Tex., for appellee.
Before CAMERON and BROWN, Circuit Judges, and HANNAY, District Judge.
Only two questions of any real seriousness emerge in this appeal from the mandatory 25-year sentences imposed after a jury verdict finding the three appellants guilty of postal robbery effected by putting in jeopardy the life of the postal employees. 18 U.S.C.A. § 2114.1 The Court-appointed counsel led by a veteran of the Criminal Bar "With great earnestness and a skill which presses out the very last drop of merit in the materials at hand," Gilmore v. United States, 5 Cir., 1959, 264 F.2d 44, 45, makes two principal contentions in the face of a formidable record of spectacular guilt.
The first is the assertion that the mandatory 25-year sentence amounts to a legislative determination which invades the independent exercise of judicial discretion implicit in our tripartite system. Especially is this so under Article III of the Constitution which vests the judicial power in the Supreme Court and in the inferior courts established by Congress. The second relates to the Court's charge on the meaning of the statutory phrase "or puts his life in jeopardy by the use of a dangerous weapon" which triggers the mandatory 25-year sentence.
We may severely compress the facts reflected by a record made up wholly of the prosecution's case since no evidence was offered by the defendants. The three defendants conceived the plan to rob the Pleasant Grove Postal Substation in Dallas. During the nighttime the three went to this post office and made a forcible entry after breaking the door locks. They were equipped with a well assorted set of burglary tools, chisels, sledge hammers, and the like. After rifling much mail, breaking dials and knobs off of file drawers and safes, it was decided they needed an acetylene cutting torch to breach the safe. They obtained this torch and continued their efforts to open the safes.
About this time (3:15 a. m.) a postal employee on a routine delivery of mail matter from the main Post Office entered the substation. He saw the three defendants but mistakenly assumed they were employees of a construction contractor engaged in some work on the building. He soon realized his error. As he brought the gondolas of mail in from his truck, one of the defendants pulled a gun on him and ordered him to come in. The revolver, a 38-caliber six-shooter, was no toy for the postal employee could see the shells in the chamber. One defendant, by the use of a long-bladed knife which he was brandishing, cut a pocket flap from the victim's trousers and took his billfold. The three then made him go to another part of the building where they sat him down, tied him to a seat and put a wastebasket over his head. The victim heard one man call out to "flatten him" to which another replied that he thought the victim would cooperate. After forcibly immobilizing this postal employee, the defendants proceeded to rifle mail sacks and packages.
While this was going on, another postal employee entered the post office and saw his fellow employee bound and covered by the wastebasket. One of the defendants had a gun pointed at the newcomer, another had a knife, and the third defendant was tearing a package. With the knife at his throat they took the surprised employee's billfold and then tied and covered him. During this time he heard one of the men say,
After the defendants departed, the two victims managed to free themselves. When later apprehended, each of the three defendants made statements to postal inspectors amounting substantially to admissions of these facts. Much loot was recovered, identified and traced as postal material. And the gun was recovered and identified.
After the verdict of guilty, the Court imposed the mandatory sentence of twenty-five years. The complaint now is not that the Court erred in having done that, for it is conceded that the statute requires it. Rather it is that the law is unconstitutional for fettering the exercise of judicial discretion which for young or first-time offenders might well have led to considerable leniency.
To the surprise of no one, counsel cite no cases in behalf of this contention. The implications...
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