Stockton v. Massey

• Decision Date: 15 July 1929
• Docket Number: No. 2862.,2862.
• Citation: 34 F.2d 96
• Parties: STOCKTON v. MASSEY, Sheriff.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

34 F.2d 96 (1929)

STOCKTON v. MASSEY, Sheriff.

No. 2862.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

July 15, 1929.

J. Raymond Gordon, of Charleston, W. Va., for appellant.

Raymond S. Norris, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen. (James Damron, U. S. Atty., of Huntington, W. Va., on the brief), for appellee.

Before NORTHCOTT, Circuit Judge, and SOPER and HAYES, District Judges.

SOPER, District Judge.

The appellant was brought before the District Court under a writ of habeas corpus, issued to determine the legality of his confinement in the jail of Kanawha county, W. Va., pending his removal to the Atlanta penitentiary. On November 19, 1925, in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of West Virginia, Stockton pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act (27 USCA) and was placed upon probation by the District Court. On March 15, 1926, the court revoked the probation, because it appeared that Stockton had violated the terms thereof, and sentenced him to serve a term of two years in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta. Subsequently, he was transferred to the penitentiary at Moundsville, W. Va., and on November 22, 1926, was released therefrom under a parole granted by authority of the Act of June 25, 1910, c. 387, 36 Stat. 819, as amended by the Act of January 23, 1913, c. 9, 37 Stat. 650 (18 USCA §§ 714 to 722). One of the conditions of the parole was that the appellant would live and remain at liberty without violating the law. But this condition was not observed, and on August 26, 1927, before the expiration of the parole, the warden of the penitentiary, having reliable information that the appellant had violated his parole, issued a warrant for his arrest in accordance with section 4 of the Act (18 USCA § 717). Before this warrant was served, the prisoner was arrested in the Southern District of West Virginia upon a charge of violating the federal laws relating to intoxicating liquors in the month of August, 1927, and on November 16, 1927, he was indicted by the federal grand jury. On November 19, 1927, he pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced by the District Court to pay a fine of $1,000, and serve a term of 12 months in the jail of Fayette county, W. Va. The warden's warrant was not served until after service under this indictment was begun. The sentence expired on or about October 19, 1928, but in the meantime, a detainer having been lodged with the jailer by reason of the warden's warrant, the prisoner was brought, upon the expiration of his sentence, to the jail of Kanawha county, W. Va., for temporary custody pending action upon the charge of violating his parole. He was taken before the parole board on December 3, 1928, and, after a hearing, the parole was revoked and his return to the Atlanta penitentiary was directed. After these proceedings were had, the writ of habeas corpus was granted, and the District Court, after hearing, being of opinion that the prisoner was lawfully detained, remanded him to the custody of the sheriff.

Under these circumstances, we think that the action of the District Court in refusing to discharge the prisoner on his petition for habeas corpus was correct, and in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court in the similar case of Anderson v. Corall, 263 U. S. 193, 44 S. Ct. 43, ...