Starks v. United States, 7779.
| Decision Date | 17 March 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 7779.,7779. |
| Citation | 264 F.2d 797 |
| Parties | John Allen STARKS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Charles W. Laughlin, Richmond, Va. (Court appointed counsel) for appellant, John Allen Starks, pro se, on brief.
Jackson L. Kiser, Asst. U. S. Atty., Roanoke, Va. (John Strickler, U. S. Atty., and H. Clyde Pearson, Asst. U. S. Atty., Roanoke, Va., on brief), for appellee.
Before SOBELOFF, Chief Judge, and SOPER and HAYNSWORTH, Circuit Judges.
On June 4, 1956, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to a charge of procuring the interstate transportation of a falsely made bank check in violation of 18 U.S. C.A. § 2314. He received a sentence of 8 years and is now confined in the United States penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. On August 8, 1958, pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255, he filed a motion to vacate the sentence on the ground that, while in the custody of officials of the State of South Carolina, but after the issuance of the federal warrant in Virginia, he was questioned by an FBI agent who took his statement. The petitioner also complains that there was a delay of some days in his arraignment after he had been released into federal custody, although it was not claimed that any statement was taken from him during that period. Finally, the petitioner alleges that he was not handed a copy of the indictment at the time of arraignment.
The District Court, upon consideration of the petition, dismissed it without a hearing.
It appears from the petition that the defendant was arrested in South Carolina for a state offense. The petition alleges that, while he was held in the custody of the state officials under the state court charges, he was interviewed by an FBI agent in connection with a wholly unrelated federal offense, for which a warrant had been issued in Virginia. The defendant claims that he confessed to the federal offense after the FBI agent, in his presence, had inquired of state officials as to the existence of a recidivist statute in South Carolina and after state officials had responded that there was such a statute, and that, if the defendant was first tried and convicted of the federal offense, a subsequent trial and conviction of the state offense, in the light of his prior criminal record, might result in life imprisonment. In light of these considerations, the petitioner alleges that he was induced to confess to the federal offense with the understanding that the federal warrant was to remain unexecuted until after the state charges had been fully tried and disposed of.
It does appear that he was tried and convicted for the state offense and that the previously issued federal warrant was not executed until completion of his service of the state court sentence.
Whether the petition alleges that a written statement was actually taken from him is not clear. The record of the proceedings in the court below contains no reference to the existence of any such statement, nor was there any reference to any oral statement by the defendant prior to his arraignment. Since no use was ever made of the statement the defendant claims to have made, and more particularly because, at the time he claims to have made the statement, he was clearly not in federal custody, the rule of Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449, 77 S.Ct. 1356, 1 L.Ed.2d 1479, which the defendant seeks to invoke, is inapplicable.
After the execution of the federal warrant, the defendant claims he was not carried before a United States Commissioner on the date indicated by the record, but was held for some days in Columbia, South Carolina, awaiting the return of the resident United States Commissioner, who was then out of the city. He does not claim, however, that any statement was made by him to any one during this period of detention and, of course, the Mallory rule is inapplicable.
The stenographic transcript of the proceedings at the time the defendant's plea was taken clearly shows that he was handed a copy of the indictment, and the charge was explained to him. The District Judge was entirely justified in disposing of this contention without a hearing, for the...
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