U.S. v. Williams, s. 88-7340

• Decision Date: 20 October 1989
• Docket Number: 88-7354 and 88-7794,88-7341,88-7293,Nos. 88-7340,88-7342,s. 88-7340
• Citation: 892 F.2d 75
• Parties: NOTICE: Fourth Circuit I.O.P. 36.6 states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. . Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 75

892 F.2d 75

NOTICE: Fourth Circuit I.O.P. 36.6 states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Fourth Circuit.

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Haywood WILLIAMS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 88-7340, 88-7341, 88-7342, 88-7293, 88-7354 and 88-7794.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Submitted: Oct. 20, 1989.

Decided: Dec. 11, 1989.

Rehearing and Rehearing In Banc Denied Jan. 25, 1990.

Haywood Williams, Jr., appellant pro se.

Henry Edward Hudson, United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, for appellee.

Before MURNAGHAN and SPROUSE, Circuit Judges, and BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge.

PER CURIAM:

Haywood Williams, Jr. appeals the district court orders denying him a copy of his presentence report and medical records, denying a motion to vacate his convictions brought under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, denying a motion to expand the record and for funds to employ experts, and denying multiple motions to reconsider the denial of the § 2255 motion. For the reasons stated below we remand with instructions to vacate the sentence on the 21 U.S.C. § 846 conviction; in all other respects we affirm the judgments and orders of the district court.

Haywood Williams, Jr., was convicted in 1980 after a jury trial of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute both heroin and cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (Count 1); engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848 (Count 2); interstate travel to promote, manage and facilitate the distribution of a Schedule I controlled substance in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1952(a)(3) (Counts 6, 7, and 8); possession of heroin with intent to distribute it in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (Count 9); and distribution of heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (Count 10). Williams was sentenced to concurrent terms of 15 years and life, respectively, on Counts 1 and 2, and to terms of 5 years, 5 years, 15 years, and 15 years, respectively, on the other counts, consecutive to each other and to the sentences imposed on counts 1 and 2. Williams' convictions and sentences were affirmed on appeal. United States v. Williams, No. 80-5117 (4th Cir. June 30, 1981) (unpublished). A subsequent motion under Fed.R.Crim.P. 35 challenging the sentences and raising a number of collateral attacks to the convictions was also denied and the dismissal was affirmed on appeal. United States v. Williams, No. 83-6639 (4th Cir. Oct. 4, 1984) (unpublished).

I No. 88-7794

The issues involved in Nos. 88-7794, 88-7293, and part of 88-7340 relate to Williams' requests for a copy of his presentence report and for copies of his medical records. In United States Department of Justice v. Julian, 486 U.S. 1, 56 U.S.L.W. 4403 (U.S. May 16, 1988) (No. 86-1357), the Supreme Court was presented with the question of whether the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) required the Department of Justice and the Parole Commission to provide inmates copies of the inmate's own presentence reports. The Court concluded that the FOIA required that the presentence reports be disclosed, except as to matters relating to confidential sources, diagnostic opinions, and other harmful information. The district found Julian to be inapplicable to a request for a copy of the district court's presentence report. We agree. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to provide Williams with the presentence reports and with medical records.

Although Julian makes a strong statement in favor or disclosing presentence reports to inmates, we decline, on this record, to extend Julian to court records. Williams' right under the FOIA to obtain a copy of his presentence report from the Bureau of Prisons, the Parole Commission, or the Department of Justice is undisputed after Julian. The report becomes an agency record and is accessible by way of an FOIA action filed in the district court where the inmate resides. See, e.g., 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B). The federal court, however, is not an "agency" under the FOIA. Consequently, the district court's copy of the presentence report is a court record not covered by the FOIA. The report can be obtained from the district court only in the exercise of that court's discretion based upon a showing of need.

Generally, this Court has required indigent litigants requesting documents or transcripts at government expense to show a particularized need for the requested material. Jones v. Superintendent, Virginia State Farm, 460 F.2d 150 (4th Cir.1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 944 (1973). In United States v. Glass, 317 F.2d 200, 202 (4th Cir.1963), this Court observed that a desire to comb the transcript in search of error is insufficient. If matters which form the basis of the collateral attack are within the knowledge of the petitioner, a sufficient need for a transcript will not be present. United States v. Shoaf, 341 F.2d 832, 835 (4th Cir.1964). At the time of Williams' initial request for the presentence report and the medical records he did not have a § 2255 motion pending. He offered no reason why he needed the presentence report, although presumably he felt that he needed it to prepare his § 2255 motion. Regarding the medical records, Williams asserted that they were needed "in order to effective[ly] prepare a Section 2255 motion." Under Jones, Glass, and Shoaf, Williams has not demonstrated sufficient need such that the district court's refusal to provide the material can be said to be an abuse of discretion. It is apparent from the comprehensive § 2255 motion that Williams filed challenging his drug convictions that the presentence report and the medical records were not necessary for preparation of that motion. Accordingly, we affirm the order in No. 88-7794 denying the presentence report and medical records.

II No. 88-7393

The district court denied Williams' request to appeal the denial of the presentence report in forma pauperis on the grounds that Williams' appeal was frivolous and he had not provided the court with an affidavit concerning his financial condition. Williams filed a motion to vacate the order denying the presentence report, and renewed his request for the medical records. ¹ The district court denied the motion to vacate and the renewed request for medical records. The court observed that since Williams had filed a § 2255 motion, the court would review the renewed request for the materials under its discretionary authority to grant discovery. The court denied both the presentence report and the medical records, however, because Williams had failed to show good cause for their production. Williams appealed.

The denial of leave to appeal the order denying the presentence report in forma pauperis was not error. Williams, a frequent litigator, did not file an affidavit concerning his financial condition in order to permit the court to make an indigency determination. In any event, it is apparent that the district court treated the motion to vacate the order denying the presentence report as a renewed request for production of documents filed in a pending § 2255 action. In fact, the court denied Williams leave to appeal in forma pauperis from the order denying the motion to vacate on the grounds that it was a non-appealable discovery order filed in the pending § 2255 proceeding.

We agree with the district court that the order denying the renewed request for the presentence report and medical records was an interlocutory discovery order which was not immediately appealable. See United States v. Ryan, 402 U.S. 530, 532-33 (1971) (orders respecting matters pertaining to discovery are interlocutory in nature and generally not appealable). Accordingly, we are constrained to dismiss the appeal in No. 88-7293 as interlocutory. However, because final judgment has been entered in the underlying § 2255 action, and because the request for the presentence report and medical records was a part of the § 2255 action, we will reach the merits of the issue. On the merits, we conclude that the denial of the renewed request for the presentence report and the medical records was proper. Although Williams was armed with the Julian decision (which had been decided subsequent to his earlier request for the presentence report) when he renewed his request, as previously discussed, Julian did not compel a different result. Moreover, the court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to supply Williams with the requested material because Williams once again failed to demonstrate a particularized need.

III

Appeals related to the denial of the § 2255 motion

The § 2255 motion presented 25 claims set out in comprehensive detail. The court did not order the government to respond to the motion. Moreover, in its order dismissing the § 2255 motion the district court appears to have addressed only the three claims presented on the printed § 2255 form provided prisoners for filing § 2255 motions. The court listed the claims for relief as (1) Williams was arraigned while legally incompetent and without the effective assistance of counsel in violation of due process; (2) the post-indictment ex parte order for psychiatric examination violated the fifth and sixth amendments; and (3) the inadequacy of the mental competency examination violated the fifth and sixth amendments. The court made no explicit...