Source: http://openjurist.org/521/f2d/1320/cassity-v-united-states
Timestamp: 2016-12-07 17:28:04
Document Index: 50700964

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 922', '§ 2255', '§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 1202', '§ 922', '§ 2255']

521 F2d 1320 Cassity v. United States | OpenJurist
521 F. 2d 1320 - Cassity v. United States HomeFederal Reporter, Second Series 521 F.2d.
521 F2d 1320 Cassity v. United States 521 F.2d 1320
Ronald Lee CASSITY, Petitioner-Appellant,v.UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee.
Ronald Lee Cassity was convicted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky of making a false and fictitious statement in connection with the acquisition of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(a) (6)1. The indictment charged that Cassity had answered "no" to a question on Firearms Transaction Record Form 4473 concerning whether he had ever been convicted in any court of a crime punishable for a term exceeding one year, when in fact he had been convicted of breaking and entering to commit a felony in Indian River County Circuit Court, Vero Beach, Florida, on March 5, 1959. The 1959 conviction formed the basis for the charge that his denial of conviction was false.
In this present action brought under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, Cassity contends for the first time2 that his Florida felony conviction resulted from a plea of guilty tendered without the assistance of counsel, in contravention of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963). He claims that under Burgett v. Texas, 389 U.S. 109, 88 S.Ct. 258, 19 L.Ed.2d 319 (1967) and United States v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 443, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972), such a conviction is void and cannot form the basis of a charge under § 922(a)(6). District Judge James Gordon denied the petition, holding Inter alia that even if Cassity's Florida felony conviction was constitutionally defective, his § 922 conviction was unaffected because the prior conviction had not been adjudicated to be constitutionally invalid at the time the false answer was given.
In enacting the gun control provisions of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 19683, Congress was clearly concerned with limiting the availability of firearms to persons who Congress had reason to believe constituted a greater threat to the general welfare of the community than does the public generally. These persons included not only those already convicted of crime, but those under indictment, fugitives from justice, unlawful users of drugs and drug addicts, and those who have been adjudicated as mental defectives or who have been committed to any mental institution.
Title VII prohibits possession of firearms by anyone who "has been convicted by a court of the United States or of a State or any political subdivision thereof of a felony." 18 U.S.C. app. § 1202(a)(1). Both the broad language of the statute and its legislative history impel us to the conclusion that Congress intended to subject to section 1202(a)(1) all persons, not within the classes expressly exempted: 1 (1) who have been convicted of a felony, and (2) whose convictions have not been invalidated as of the time the firearm is possessed. Congress did not intend to exempt from section 1202(a)(1) one whose status as a convicted felon changed after the date of possession, regardless of how that change of status occurred. (Cf. DePugh v. United States (8th Cir. 1968) 393 F.2d 367.) 432 F.2d at 20 (Footnote omitted)
We conclude, as did Judge Gordon, that the careful statutory scheme of gun control Congress has provided would be seriously jeopardized if a person convicted of a felony could, when purchasing a firearm, make the statement that he had never been convicted of such felony based upon his own subjective belief that his conviction was constitutionally defective where such conviction had not prior thereto been set aside. We reject petitioner's contention that this interpretation of Congressional intent in enacting § 922(a)(6) permits ". . . a conviction obtained in violation of Gideon v. Wainwright to be used against a person either to support guilt or enhance punishment for another offense . . ." Burgett v. Texas, 389 U.S. 109, 115, 88 S.Ct. 258, 262, 19 L.Ed.2d 319 (1967).
Cassity's conviction was affirmed on direct appeal, United States v. Cassity, 471 F.2d 317 (6th Cir. 1972), Cert. denied, 411 U.S. 947, 93 S.Ct. 1924, 36 L.Ed.2d 409 (1973). Cassity did not raise the issue presented here on direct appeal. Judge Gordon decided Cassity's petition on the merits of the issue presented and the parties have not extensively briefed or argued at oral hearing the question of whether the particular issue presented is cognizable under § 2255. As we do not deem the question to be jurisdictional in nature, we do not reach it here. Cf. Davis v. United States, 417 U.S. 333, 94 S.Ct. 2298, 41 L.Ed.2d 109 (1974), Short v. United States, 504 F.2d 63 (6th Cir. 1974)