United States v. Snyder, 147

• Decision Date: 25 February 1947
• Docket Number: No. 147,Docket 20432.,147
• Citation: 160 F.2d 351
• Parties: UNITED STATES ex rel. MARSHALL v. SNYDER, Warden.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

160 F.2d 351 (1947)

UNITED STATES ex rel. MARSHALL v. SNYDER, Warden.

No. 147, Docket 20432.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

February 25, 1947.

Jonathan B. Bingham, of New York City, and Julia Marshall, for Hackett Marshall, relator-appellant, in person.

Nathaniel L. Goldstein, Atty. Gen. of New York (Wendell P. Brown, Sol. Gen., of Albany, N. Y., and Philip Kahaner, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel), for William E. Snyder, Warden, respondent-appellee.

Before L. HAND, AUGUSTUS N. HAND, and FRANK, Circuit Judges.

AUGUSTUS N. HAND, Circuit Judge.

The relator Marshall, who is a Negro, was convicted in the Court of General Sessions, New York County, of the crime of assault in the second degree. He was sentenced on December 7, 1938 to serve a minimum of five years, and a maximum of ten years in Sing Sing Prison.

In 1944 the relator obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the Supreme Court of the State of New York in which he sought his release from prison on the ground that he had served his minimum sentence and was being illegally detained. He also demanded that he be transferred from Dannemora State Hospital to Sing Sing Prison. That court denied his request for release from prison but allowed a transfer to Sing Sing. He appealed from that order which, in September 1944, was unanimously affirmed by the Appellate Division, Third Department, in the following memorandum opinion, reported in People ex rel. Marshall v. Webster, 268 App.Div. 844, 50 N.Y.S.2d 520, 521:

"Appeal, in part, from an order of the Supreme Court, Clinton County, made on or about March 16, 1944. Appellant has been found sane and transferred to Sing Sing Prison. His maximum term has not expired, and he is not entitled as a matter of right to a reduction of time from his minimum sentence. Correction Law, section 230. The Parole Board is not a party to this proceeding and this court has no power to make any order relating thereto. Appeal dismissed, without costs. All concur."

No appeal was taken from the order of the Appellate Division to the New York Court of Appeals.

Thereafter the relator obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York upon a petition in which he alleged (1) that he had been refused parole at the expiration of his minimum term because he was a Negro, in spite of the fact that he had maintained a good prison record; (2) that he had been denied relief in the Supreme Court of New York, in the Appellate Division, and in the New York Court of Appeals.

The Warden filed a return to the petition in which he set forth that he held the relator under order of the Court of General Sessions to serve the sentence above mentioned, the maximum of which had not expired. Philip Kahaner, Assistant Attorney General of the State, who had made the return on behalf of the Warden, filed a supporting affidavit stating (1) that a denial of parole was within the absolute discretion of the Parole Board, (2) that the relator had not exhausted his remedies in the New York State Courts in that he had failed to appeal to the Court of Appeals from the order of the Appellate Division. On September 30, 1946, the District Court made an order dismissing the writ of habeas corpus and remanding the relator to Sing Sing Prison, from which the present appeal was taken.

On November 18, 1946 Julia Marshall, the wife of the relator, who had signed the petition for the writ of habeas corpus on his behalf, filed a brief with the Clerk of this Court in which she claimed on his behalf (a) that he had exhausted his remedies for relief in the State Court; (b) that he was convicted before a jury composed exclusively of white citizens; (c) that the Parole Board had discriminated against Negroes in exercising their power to admit prisoners to parole. As data for the claim that the relator exhausted his remedies she set forth the following:

"He was held in duress in the isolation section of the State Prison in Ossining, New York, although he did not violate any of the prison rules; and was never charged with or been disciplined, his legal papers, in answer to the attorney-general of the State of New York, his brief was refused mailing privilege; however, the Court of Appeals and Motion of the...