Weldon v. Steele, 9431.

• Decision Date: 17 November 1954
• Docket Number: No. 9431.,9431.
• Citation: 125 F. Supp. 667
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri
• Parties: Earl C. WELDON, Petitioner, v. Dr. Ivan W. STEELE, Warden, United States Medical Center For Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri, Respondent.

125 F. Supp. 667

Earl C. WELDON, Petitioner, v. Dr. Ivan W. STEELE, Warden, United States Medical Center For Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri, Respondent.

No. 9431.

United States District Court, W. D. Missouri, W. D.

November 17, 1954.

Petitioner appears pro se.

WHITTAKER, District Judge.

By order, in this habeas corpus proceeding, of November 8, 1954, we directed respondent to show cause, within 10 days, why a writ of habeas corpus should not be issued, upon the particular and limited question, only, of whether the Board of Medical Examiners, at the Federal prison at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania (provided for by Section 4241, Title 18 U.S.C.A.), had examined petitioner's mental condition and reported their findings and the facts on which based to the Attorney General of the United States (as provided for in said Section 4241, Title 18 U.S.C.A.), prior to the removal of petitioner from the Lewisburg prison to the Springfield Medical Center, and whether the Attorney General, in pursuance of such examination and report, directed the removal of petitioner from the Lewisburg prison to the Springfield Medical Center in pursuance of Section 4241, Title 18 U.S.C.A., and, hence, whether the terms of that particular section are now applicable to petitioner's detention.

The issue, and hence our order above mentioned, arose in this way: Petitioner alleged that in 1949 he was sentenced by the District Court for the District of Columbia for a term of "2 to 6 years"; that with allowance of time off for good behavior (conditionally allowed by Section 4161, Title 18 U.S.C.A.) he became entitled to conditional release from imprisonment on May 11, 1954; that the Board of Medical Examiners, at the Lewisburg prison, did not give him a mental examination, or report their findings and the facts on which based to the Attorney General before petitioner was removed from the Lewisburg prison to the Springfield Medical Center, and petitioner contended that, therefore, his imprisonment at the latter place was not under and subject to Section 4241, Title 18 U.S.C.A., which alone, takes away "good time", and that, in consequence, he is legally entitled to credit on his sentence for "good time", and that, with it, he became entitled to conditional release on May 11, 1954. This, we thought, presented a substantial question. Hence, our order upon respondent to show cause upon that particular and limited question.

Respondent has now filed his answer to that order to show cause, from which it clearly appears that on September 21, 1950, while petitioner was imprisoned at the Lewisburg prison, the Attorney General, by the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, ordered petitioner removed, and he was removed, to the Springfield Medical Center under Section 4082, Title 18 U.S.C.A., for mental observation and examination; that while petitioner was in the Springfield Medical Center, for those purposes, the Board of Medical Examiners of that institution (also set up and provided for by Section 4241, Title 18 U.S.C.A.), under date of June 25, 1953, reported and certified to the Attorney General of the United States, as contemplated by said Section 4241, Title 18 U.S. C.A., that upon examination of petitioner they had found him to be of unsound mind "as more fully appears in the medical report attached" (which was a medical report dated June 23, 1953 — copy of which is attached to respondent's return here — and finds petitioner to be "psychotic"); that thereafter, on July 13, 1953, the Attorney General, by the Assistant Director of the Bureau of Prisons, made — upon the printed form commonly used for the purpose — the following order, in respect to petitioner, towit:

"Order For Removal

"It appearing by the certification of the Board of Examiners that the above-named prisoner is a suitable subject for the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, and now,

"1. (The whole of paragraph 1 of the printed form, directing removal of the prisoner from a Federal prison to the Springfield Medical Center, is deleted — no doubt because petitioner was already in the Springfield Medical Center.)

"2. You, the Warden of the said Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, are hereby authorized and directed to him safely keep pending further orders from the undersigned."

(The remainder of the words on the printed form reading "or until the maximum sentence, without credit for good time or commutation, shall have been served" were deleted.)

Pursuant to that order, petitioner, being then in, was retained in, the Springfield Medical Center, and is still imprisoned there under his original sentence of "2 to 6 years", which will expire, by its terms, on December 8, 1955.

It is thus clear that, while the Board of Medical Examiners of the Lewisburg prison did not give petitioner a mental examination, and report their findings and the facts on which based to the Attorney General, prior to his transfer therefrom to the Springfield Medical Center, yet petitioner was given such mental examination by the Board of Medical Examiners of the Springfield Medical Center who reported their findings, of unsound mind, and the facts on which based, to the Attorney General, under date of June 25, 1953, as contemplated and provided for in Section 4241, Title 18 U.S.C.A., and, thereafter, on July 13, 1953, the Attorney General, by the Assitant Director of the Bureau of Prisons, on the declared basis of said medical finding and report, ordered, in the language above quoted, that petitioner be confined in the...