Theriault v. United States
| Decision Date | 18 April 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 26173.,26173. |
| Citation | 409 F.2d 1313 |
| Parties | Harry William THERIAULT, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
R. Neal Batson, Atlanta, Ga. (court-appointed), for appellant.
Floyd M. Buford, U. S. Atty., Walker P. Johnson, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Macon, Ga., for appellee.
Before JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge, AINSWORTH, Circuit Judge, and FULTON, District Judge.
This appellant was convicted upon a trial to a jury of the offense established by Title 18, U.S.C. § 751, escape by a prisoner from the custody of the United States. He has launched a heavy fusillade against this conviction, charging at least twelve separate specifications of error, most of which are totally without merit. None of them will be discussed in this opinion save appellant's contention that his escape was the result of an irresistible impulse, the product of a sick mind.
On June 3, 1967, Deputy United States Marshal Graham E. Same and his guard, John Anderson, arrived at a jail in Eldorado, Arkansas and assumed custody of the appellant, Harry William Theriault, in order to transport him to Mobile, Alabama under a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum. As the officers proceeded toward Mobile by automobile with the appellant in their custody it was necessary for them to detour enroute twice to pick up and discharge other prisoners. Because of this circuitous route, it was necessary to quarter the appellant in a jail in Columbus, Mississippi on the night of June 3.
The next day, the guard was driving the automobile with the deputy sitting in the right front seat and the appellant and another prisoner by the name of Denney were confined in the back seat in handcuffs and leg irons. At a point some six or seven miles north of Bainbridge, Georgia in the midst of a heavy rainstorm, the guard pulled the automobile onto the left side of the highway and began to pass a line of automobiles ahead of him on the downgrade of a long hill. Just as he began this passing process, the appellant, who had picked the lock on his right handcuff, lunged over the front seat and snatched the deputy's revolver. In the ensuing scuffle the guard was frantically trying to stop the automobile and finally skidded to a stop on the slick pavement.
In the several moments which followed, the resourceful appellant completely reversed the whole situation. With the assistance of the deputy's revolver, he placed the deputy and the guard in the back seat under handcuffs and with leg irons and ordered the other prisoner to turn the automobile around and head back in the direction from whence they came. Shortly thereafter, upon the order of appellant, his fellow prisoner drove the automobile from the highway and down a dirt road into a deserted section of woods where appellant shackled the deputy and the guard to a tree, using the handcuffs, chains and leg irons. Then, having relieved the hapless officers of weapons, identification, credit cards, money, and other personal effects, the erstwhile prisoners took their departure in the deputy's automobile.
Not to be outdone by appellant's ingenuity, the officers managed to use a plastic stay from the guard's shirt collar to loose themselves from the tree. Still in chains, and completely drenched from the rain, they hobbled to the road where they tried to halt a passing automobile. The driver, probably believing the unlikely-looking officers to be escapees themselves, tried to run them down, and would have except at the last split second they dived into an adjacent ditch. Happily, they finally convinced the folk at a country trading post of their true identity. These people telephoned the local Sheriff, who rescued the officers and sent out a radio...
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