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Paul J. MADIGAN, Warden, United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz, California, Appellant, v. Selvie W. WELLS, Appellee

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit1955-07-18No. No. 14496
224 F.2d 577

Summary

Holding. The judgment granting Wells' habeas corpus application was reversed because the district court lacked jurisdiction to issue the writ after Wells had already been denied relief on a § 2255 motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255.

Wells, a federal prisoner, sought a writ of habeas corpus in the Northern District of California challenging a conviction and sentence imposed in 1938 by a Texas federal court. Wells had previously filed a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 for relief from his sentence on the ground that one of his convictions merged into another, but that motion was denied. Despite this prior denial, the district court granted Wells' habeas corpus application and ordered his release from custody.

The appellate court reversed the district court's order, holding that the district court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the habeas corpus petition. Federal law prohibits courts from considering habeas corpus applications when an applicant has already been denied relief through a § 2255 motion. The court rejected Wells' argument that this statutory bar constitutes an unconstitutional suspension of habeas corpus rights, noting that multiple circuits had upheld the constitutionality of § 2255. The court suggested that Wells' remedy, if any, lay through an appeal for executive clemency rather than through judicial processes.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether a district court has jurisdiction to grant habeas corpus relief after denial of a § 2255 motion
  • Whether the bar to habeas corpus in § 2255 violates the Suspension Clause of the Constitution
  • Whether the claimed merger of convictions provides grounds for relief outside the § 2255 framework

Procedural posture

The Ninth Circuit heard an appeal from a district court order granting a habeas corpus petition filed by a federal prisoner who had previously been denied relief on a § 2255 motion.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

DENMAN, Chief Judge.

This is an appeal from an order entered by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Southern Division, two judges acting, granting Wells’ application for a writ of habeas corpus and ordering Wells discharged from custody.

After a plea of guilty, Wells, in 1938, was sentenced to prison by the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. So far as we are concerned, appellee was sentenced upon pleas of guilty to the third count of an indictment charging robbery of a bank and putting the life of a person in jeopardy by the use of a dangerous weapon (in the commission of the robbery) and to the fourth count charging entering the bank with intent to commit a felony, to wit, the robbery. The sentences were fixed to run consecutively. Wells has served his time except for the sentence imposed on his plea of guilty to count four. He contends that this sentence is void as the offense charged in count four merged into the one charged in count three.

Wells had previously moved for relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and been denied. Wells v. United States, 5 Cir., 210 F.2d 112. There is no allegation in Wells’ petition that the remedy by motion is inadequate or ineffective.

I. The District Court has no jurisdiction to issue the writ of habeas corpus.

An application for a writ of habeas corpus “shall not be entertained” if the applicant has been denied relief on a § 2255 motion. 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The district court was without jurisdiction to issue the writ. Winhoven v. Swope, 9 Cir., 195 F.2d 181.

If this is true, Wells argues, then § 2255 is an unconstitutional suspension of the writ under Art. I, Sec. 9, cl. 2 of the United States Constitution.

The constitutionality of § 2255 has been upheld in two fully reasoned opinions. Jones v. Squier, 9 Cir., 195 F.2d 179; Barrett v. Hunter, 10 Cir., 180 F.2d 510, 20 A.L.R.2d 965. Habeas corpus has been denied on the basis of § 2255 without any suggestion that § 2255 is unconstitutional by at least three other circuits. Smith v. Reid, 89 U.S.App.D.C. 272, 191 F.2d 491; Meyers v. Welch, 4 Cir., 179 F.2d 707; Weber v. Steele, 8 Cir., 185 F.2d 799.

II. Wells’ only remedy is to appeal for Executive clemency.

Although it well may be that the offense charged in count four merged into that charged in count three, and the district court was without jurisdiction to grant the relief requested because of the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The decision of the two district judges, so obviously failing to consider the jurisdictional effect of the statutes involved, seems to be based solely on sympathy for one they think unjustly treated. Such action confirms the maxim that hard cases make bad law or more eloquently put, “ ‘Hard cases are the quicksands of the law." Metropolitan Nat. Bank v. Campbell Comm. Co., C.C.W.D.Mo., 77 F. 705, 710. The appeal should have been to the President.

To fail to reserve would not only be contrary to precedent but would wipe out much of the gain accomplished by § 2255 and highly approved by the Supreme Court in United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205, 72 S.Ct. 263, 96 L.Ed. 232.

The judgment is reversed.

. These eases are noted in United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205, footnote 6, at page 210, 72 S.Ct. 263, 96 L.Ed. 232.

. Counsel have not explored the possibility of eoram nobis, a remedy which § 2255 has not superseded. United States v. Morgan, 346 U.S. 502, 74 S.Ct. 247, 98 L.Ed. 248. However, this is not a case where the sentence has been served or where the movant has not begun to serve the sentence he attacks. To hold coram nobis available in this case would also destroy the progress made by § 2255. In addition, the writ can issue, if at all, only in aid of the jurisdiction of the Texas court in which the conviction was had. 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a) ; United States v. Morgan, supra, 346 U.S. at page 506, 74 S.Ct. 247. In the Morgan case the motion was addressed to the sentencing court. Issuance of the writ would not be in aid of the habeas corpus jurisdiction of the’ California court below.