United States v. St. Clair

• Citation: 62 F. Supp. 795
• Decision Date: 26 October 1945
• Docket Number: Cr. No. 3244.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. ST. CLAIR.

62 F. Supp. 795

UNITED STATES v. ST. CLAIR.

Cr. No. 3244.

District Court, W. D. Virginia, at Roanoke.

October 26, 1945.

T. Warren Messick, of Roanoke, Va., for petitioner.

Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., U. S. Atty., of Woodstock, Va., for the United States.

PAUL, District Judge.

Robert Clayton St. Clair, sometimes known as Dewey St. Clair, has filed his petition praying for a revision and reformation of a sentence or sentences of imprisonment imposed upon him at the January, 1938, term of this court at Roanoke.

The allegations of the petition are, in substance, that at the aforesaid term of court the petitioner was indicted for violation of the statute known as the White-Slave Traffic Act, § 2, 18 U.S.C.A. § 398, in an indictment containing twelve counts. That at the same term he entered a plea of guilty to each of the first ten counts and that upon this plea he was sentenced to imprisonment for a period of two and a half years on each of said ten counts with the provision that the ten respective sentences should be run and be served consecutively and not concurrently. That in pursuance of the sentence thus imposed the petitioner was thereafter committed to the United States penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia, where he now remains in custody. The above recited allegations of the petition are supported by the records of this court and there is no question of their accuracy.

As a ground for reformation of the sentence imposed upon him the petitioner alleges that while the ten counts of the indictment to which he pleaded guilty purport to charge ten separate offenses for which consecutive sentences might be imposed, such counts in fact comprise and allege only five separate offenses for which consecutive sentences might be imposed. It is alleged that the second and third counts of the indictment relate to one and the same transaction and allege only one offense; that the same is true as to the fourth and fifth counts; the same as to the sixth and seventh counts; and as to the eighth, ninth and tenth counts.

These contentions arise from the following facts: The second count of the indictment charges that the defendant (the petitioner here) on August 4, 1937, transported from Huntsville, Alabama, to Roanoke, Virginia, a woman by the name of Henrietta Sorey for purposes of prostitution etc. The third count of the indictment charges on the same date the transportation between the same points and for the same purposes of a woman named Ruby Reed. The petitioner now urges that these two counts of the indictment relate to only one offense "for the reason that the two separate and distinct women named therein were transported at the same time and in the same conveyance from Huntsville, Alabama, to Roanoke, Virginia."

Similarly, the fourth count charges the transportation on September 2, 1936, from Jacksonville, Florida, to Roanoke, Virginia, of a woman named Sophia Brosko; while the fifth count charges the transportation on the same date and between the same places of one Nell Wiggins. As to this also the petitioner alleges that both women were transported at the same time and in the same conveyance.

The same situation exists as to the sixth and seventh counts involving the transportation on July 1, 1937, between Frederick, Maryland, and Roanoke of two women who are separately named as the victims in the respective counts.

And again the eighth, ninth and tenth counts each charge a transportation between Greensboro, North Carolina, and Roanoke on July 28, 1937; each count naming a different woman as the subject of the transportation. As to these counts the petitioner raises the same question, namely, that there was only one transportation inasmuch as the three women were all carried on the same trip.

Briefly stated it is the contention of petitioner that where, in violation of the act, a defendant has transported several women in the same vehicle and on the same trip, there has been only a single transportation and therefore only one criminal act; and that the defendant cannot be charged with a number of separate offenses each applying to one of the several women involved.

After this lapse of time the court has a very indistinct recollection of the facts developed on the hearing of this case and no record of any evidence was taken at the time of hearing. However, the United States Attorney, supported by the case report in his files, agrees that the facts alleged by petitioner are correct; i. e., that in each case where the counts of the indictment allege transportation occurring on the same date and over the same course there was in fact a single trip; and that the separate counts are intended to relate to the different women transported on that trip. This statement comes as no surprise as I have no doubt that I was fully aware of it at the time the case was heard.

There being no dispute about the facts, there is presented to the court this one clear cut question: Where a violation of the White-Slave Act involves the transportation of more than one woman on the same trip and in the same vehicle, has there been committed only one criminal act, or does the transportation of each woman constitute a separate and distinct offense?

No question of the validity of the sentence in this case was raised at the time of its imposition although the petitioner was then represented by able and experienced counsel. I can only presume that his then counsel accepted the view that each of the counts stated a separate and distinct offense. That the petitioner has now, after the lapse of some years, raised this question is, I am sure, due to the comparatively recent decision in Robinson v. United States, 143 F.2d 276, decided July 17, 1944, by the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Tenth Circuit. However, in a case of this sort the lapse of time should not bar the petitioner from assertion of his rights if they have in fact been violated. Nor is he to be prejudiced by the fact that he pleaded guilty to each of the ten separate counts in the then belief that they each charged a separate and distinct offense.

On the direct question here presented there is a scarcity of authority in the decided cases. Indeed the only two cases which I am able to find dealing with the specific question are Robinson v. United States, supra, on which petitioner relies, and Gillenwaters v. Biddle, 18 F.2d 206, decided by the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Eighth Circuit in March, 1927. There is no doubt that the Robinson case is in direct support of petitioner's contention. But it is also true that the Gillenwaters case is as plainly to the contrary. So far as I can find the question has never been passed on in this (the Fourth) circuit nor by the Supreme Court. This court is thus faced with two conflicting views emanating from two courts of equal dignity and authority. The decisions of a Circuit Court of Appeals are ordinarily persuasive, though not binding authority outside the circuit where rendered; and where, as here, these opinions are in conflict it would seem that this court is not only permitted but required to give the question its independent consideration.

It is to be borne in mind that this is not one of that line of cases where it has been held that in a transportation involving one woman only, the defendant may be charged with separate offenses under separate sections of the act; as for example, in Roark v. United States, 8 Cir., 17 F.2d 570, 51 A. L.R. 870, where it was held that a defendant might be convicted of two separate offenses, one under Section 2, 18 U.S.C.A. § 398, for "transporting" for immoral purposes, and one under Section 3, 18 U.S.C. A. § 399, for "inducing" the transportation, although there was but one transaction. In the instant case all of the counts are laid under Section 2, charging that the defendant "did transport" and "cause to be transported" and did "aid and assist in transporting," etc.; and in each count a different woman is named as the subject of the transportation.

Section 2 of the statute, so far as pertinent here, provides that:

"Any person who shall knowingly transport or cause to be transported, or aid or assist * * * in transporting, in interstate * * * commerce, * * * any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose * * * shall be deemed guilty of a felony, * * *" etc.

The argument of the petitioner is that the transportation in interstate commerce is the gist of the offense and that a single transportation can constitute only one crime, regardless of the number of women transported; and this appears to be the reasoning of the decision in the Robinson case. It is true that the interstate transportation is the act which constitutes an offense against the federal government. It is the element which, under our dual system of government, enables the federal government to take cognizance of a condition which must otherwise be left to the jurisdiction of the states and which, in the absence of such transportation, constitutes no crime against the federal law. But that the transportation is "the gist of the offense", as stated in the Robinson case 143 F.2d 278, is true only in a limited sense. The transportation must be accompanied by the vicious purpose specifically set forth in the statute. The evil aimed at by this statute is prostitution or debauchery, and not the running of an automobile across a state line. Women are transported in interstate commerce by thousands each day in the course of normal travel. It is only when the transportation is for the purpose prohibited by the act that it constitutes a crime. The purpose or intent with which the transportation is effected is equally as essential as the transportation itself. As said in Hansen v. Haff, 291 U.S. 559, 563, 54 S.Ct. 494, 495, 78 L.Ed. 968:

"The Mann Act creates the offense of transporting in interstate commerce a woman or girl `for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other...