Vasser v. Raines
| Decision Date | 30 December 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 6236.,6236. |
| Citation | 274 F.2d 369 |
| Parties | James Vernon VASSER, Appellant, v. R. R. RAINES, Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Robert B. Yegge, Denver, Colo., for appellant.
Owen J. Watts, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen. of Oklahoma, was with him on the brief), for appellee.
Before HUXMAN, PICKETT and LEWIS, Circuit Judges.
The question presented for decision is whether appellant's conviction as a habitual criminal and his sentence of twenty-five years in the District Court of Tulsa County, Oklahoma, is void because it violates the Federal Constitution.
Appellant, James Vernon Vassar, was convicted in the above entitled case on August 26, 1956, on an information charging the crime of burglary. The information included a charge, "That said defendant, heretofore, to-wit: on the 6th day of April, 1948, was convicted of the crime of Forging United States Government Obligations in the United States Federal Court for the Northern District, State of Oklahoma, and sentenced to serve a term of three years in the United States Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma * * *." His contention is that the crime of which he was convicted in the Federal Court did not constitute a violation of 21 O.S.A. § 1577, which defines forgery in the second degree.
Appellant has exhausted his remedies in the State court in that he appealed his conviction to the Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma, Ex parte Vassar, 338 P.2d 359 where he raised this precise question. Thereafter, he filed a habeas corpus action in the State court and appealed to the Criminal Court of Appeals from an adverse decision, Vassar v. State, 328 P.2d 445, and applied for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court from an adverse ruling. Certiorari was denied, 360 U.S. 936, 79 S.Ct. 1458, 3 L.Ed.2d 1548. He then filed this habeas corpus action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
It is contended that the Federal judgment under which he was convicted in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, did not set forth facts which would, if established, constitute a violation of 21 O.S.A. § 1577, which makes it an offense of second degree forgery for one to sell, exchange or deliver for any consideration any forged or counterfeited promissory note, check, bill, draft, or other evidence of debt, or engagement for the payment of money absolutely, or upon any contingency, knowing the same to be forged or counterfeited, with intent to have the same uttered or passed, or who offers any such note or other instrument for sale, exchange or delivery for any consideration, with the like knowledge and intent, or who receives any such note or instrument upon a sale, exchange or delivery for any consideration with the like knowledge and intent.
The precise question which appellant urges here was before the Criminal Court of Appeals in his appeal to that court.1 That court held that the Federal charge set out a crime for which appellant could have been prosecuted in the State court. Since the question presents a question of due process under the Federal Constitution, Amend. 14, the decision of the State court, while entitled to great weight, is not binding on us...
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...New Jersey has jurisdiction to rule upon federal questions. Smayda v. United States, 352 F.2d 251, 253 (9th Cir.1965); Vassar v. Raines, 274 F.2d 369, 371 (10th Cir.1959), cert. den., 362 U.S. 982, 80 S.Ct. 1069, 4 L.Ed.2d 1016 (1959); Aftanase v. Economy Baler Co. 343 F.2d 187 (8th Cir.196......
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...Mill Co., supra, p. 194 of 170 F.2d; Ark-La Feed & Fertilizer Co. v. Marco Chem. Co., supra, p. 201 of 292 F.2d; Vasser v. Raines, 274 F.2d 369, 371 (10 Cir. 1959), cert. denied 362 U.S. 982, 80 S. Ct. 1069, 4 L.Ed.2d 1016; 36 C.J.S., Federal Courts, § This court heretofore has not had occa......
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...187, 192-193 (8th Cir. 1965); Sporcum, Inc. v. Greenman Bros., Inc., 340 F.Supp. 1168, 1175-1176 (S.D.Iowa 1972). See Vassar v. Raines, 274 F.2d 369, 371 (10th Cir. 1959), cert. denied, 362 U.S. 982, 80 S.Ct. 1069, 4 L.Ed.2d 1016 It is, of course, the watershed cases of Hanson v. Denckla, 3......
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United States v. Follette, 65 Civ. 3574.
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