Source: https://m.openjurist.org/298/us/460
Timestamp: 2020-04-02 00:47:56
Document Index: 497692694

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 239', '§ 346', '§ 346', '§ 1041', '§ 569', '§ 569', '§ 1042', '§ 641', '§ 641']

298 U.S. 460 - Hill v. United States
298 US 460 Hill v. United States
UNITED STATES ex rel. WAMPLER.
On July 23, 1935, the relator filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania a petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging that the proper term of his imprisonment had expired and that his detention had become unlawful. The petition was granted, and the relator discharged. Wampler v. Hill, 11 F.Supp. 540. The warden of the penitentiary appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. That court, after certifying the facts substantially as summarized above, requested our instructions upon the following questions (Judicial Code, § 239, as amended, 28 U.S.C. § 346 (28 U.S.C.A. § 346)):
The payment of a fine imposed by a court of the United States in a criminal prosecution may be enforced by execution against property in like manner as in civil cases. R.S. § 1041, 18 U.S.C. § 569 (18 U.S.C.A. § 569). In the discretion of the court the judgment may direct also that the defendant shall be imprisoned until the fine is paid. Ibid.; and see R.S. § 1042, 18 U.S.C. § 641 (18 U.S.C.A. § 641). Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, 737, 24 L.Ed. 877; Ex parte Barclay (C.C.) 153 F. 669; Haddox v. Richardson (C.C.A.) 168 F. 635, 639. If the direction for imprisonment is omitted, the remedy by execution is exclusive. Imprisonment does not follow automatically upon a showing of default in payment. It follows, if at all, because the consequence has been prescribed in the imposition of the sentence. The choice of pains and penalties, when choice is committed to the discretion of the court, is part of the judicial function. This being so, it must have expression in the sentence, and the sentence is the judgment. Miller v. Aderhold, 288 U.S. 206, 210, 53 S.Ct. 325, 77 L.Ed. 702; Wagner v. United States (C.C.A.) 3 F.(2d) 864; State v. Vaughan, 71 Conn. 457, 458, 42 A. 640; Manke v. People, 74 N.Y. 415, 424.
The questions are to be read, however, in the light of the preliminary statement certifying the facts out of which the questions have arisen. Rule 37, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 354; Stratton's Independence v. Howbert, 231 U.S. 399, 422, 34 S.Ct. 136, 58 L.Ed. 285; Dillon v. Strathearn S.S. Co., 248 U.S. 182, 184, 39 S.Ct. 83, 63 L.Ed. 199. From that certificate it is clear that the sentence spread upon the records is identical with the sentence orally pronounced and that the only variance complained of is between sentence and commitment.** In such circumstances the word 'orally' in questions 1 and 3 may be disregarded as superfluous, and the answers to the questions made as we would make them if the word had been omitted.