Source: http://openjurist.org/243/f2d/48
Timestamp: 2015-10-09 22:02:46
Document Index: 772255711

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 24211', '§ 4241', '§ 4245', '§ 4241', '§ 4245', '§ 2255']

243 F2d 48 Gregori v. United States | OpenJurist
243 F. 2d 48 - Gregori v. United States HomeFederal Reporter, Second Series 243 F.2d.
243 F2d 48 Gregori v. United States 243 F.2d 48
Jonathan GREGORI, Appellant,v.UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
Jonathan Gregori, Springfield, Mo., in pro. per.
E. Coleman Madsen, Asst. U. S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., for appellee.
In May 1955 the appellant was convicted after a jury trial of several days duration, in which he was represented by counsel, of violating the White Slavery Act, 18 U.S.C.A. § 24211; a motion for a new trial was filed. On June 17, 1955, appellant was sentenced to four years imprisonment. A notice of appeal was filed on June 27th but apparently the appeal was not prosecuted. Neither the motion for a new trial, based on six asserted grounds, nor the notice of appeal, both of which were prepared by appellant's counsel, raised the issue of insanity at the time of trial as a bar to the proceeding, nor does it appear from the record before us that this question was brought to the attention of, or considered by the trial court in any other manner.
On December 19, 1955, appellant, proceeding in forma pauperis and without counsel, filed a "Motion to Vacate Sentence on Newly Discovered Evidence," in which he alleged in substance the following facts: Appellant had been honorably discharged from the United States Navy in November 1947 for "psychotic reasons" — because he had a "state of paranoia chronic condition, with suicidal tendencies." Subsequently appellant was treated by several doctors for mental ailments and in 1950 he was "again" committed for attempted suicide. Complete amnesia is claimed beginning in the year 1952 and continuing until December 1955, thus including both the date of the alleged crime (December 1954) and the entire period of the consequent judicial proceedings; in particular he alleges that:
"(D) Petitioner appeared in court on approximate date of May 1955. He was mentally ill, incompatent, under complete amnesia and therefore did not realize what was going on and the seriousness and graveness of the crime of which he was involved."
Immediately after his sentence appellant was sent to the Atlanta Penitentiary and was there immediately medically examined and placed into a ward for psychotic patients. A consulting psychiatrist was called, who, with two doctors of the prison staff, diagnosed, only two months after the sentence, that appellant was suffering from: "Paranoia chronic with shizophrenic intonations as evidenced by delusions and hallucinations and active ideas of persecution with suicidal tendencies." Thereupon appellant was transferred to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, and placed into a ward for "certified psychotic insane patients under acute state of insanity and needing psychiatric care and treatment." (Spelling as in motion.)
The district judge, who had also presided at the trial, concluded that this motion should be treated as brought under 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 4241, 4245,2 and directed that the motion be served upon the Attorney General and that he be directed to file with the court either the certificate of probable cause by the Director of the Bureau of Prisons contemplated by § 4245, together with the report of the Board of Examiners prepared pursuant to § 4241 that was apparently referred to in the motion, or to answer appellant's motion. The court denied, as unnecessary for the time being, appellant's request for the production of a transcript of the trial proceedings.
In accordance with this order the United States filed an answer in which it was asserted that appellant's Navy discharge was for "constitutional psychopathic inferiority" rather than for any psychosis or psychoneurosis; it was also asserted that the hospitalization in Atlanta occurred not immediately but only after two months. In addition there was filed the report of the Board of Examiners convened in accordance with the order of the court, in which appellant's medical history in the prison hospitals was recited, showing that he had first been placed into a mental ward after a two months' stay in Atlanta because when he was temporarily lodged in the surgical ward of the prison hospital for a minor operation he expressed fears that he would be murdered; he was then diagnosed by the consulting neuropsychiatrist as suffering from "schizophrenia, paranoid type" and was certified by the Board of Examiners at Atlanta as being of unsound mind and recommended for transfer to the Missouri institution. Upon arrival there his diagnosis was "schizophrenic reaction, chronic, undifferentiated type." The Board then gave an account of his appearance before them in which the appellant's behavior was hardly such as to inspire confidence in his ability to comprehend clearly a legal proceeding — though he had earlier initiated this one. The Board concluded that though appellant was then suffering from a major mental disorder there was no "conclusive evidence" that subject had been insane at the time of his trial.3 No certificate of probable cause by the Director of the Bureau of Prisons had been prepared.
The district court thereupon determined that on the basis of the above report, and on the record as a whole, appellant was not entitled to relief either under the provisions of 18 U.S.C.A. § 4245 or 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255.4
The principal burden of appellant's brief here is that since the Board found and the experts agree that the chronic mental condition from which he is suffering is one that takes many years to develop, a finding of mental disease some four months after the trial almost conclusively proves mental incapacity at the earlier date. Appellant also complains, apparently with some justice, of undue delay in this proceeding.5
The Government relies on two decisions of the Tenth Circuit, Hallowell v. Hunter,