Case Name: FITZGERALD v. SANFORD, Warden
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1944-05-09
Citations: 142 F.2d 445
Docket Number: No. 10828
Parties: FITZGERALD v. SANFORD, Warden.
Judges: Before SIBLEY, McCORD, and LEE, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 142
Pages: 445–446

Head Matter:
FITZGERALD v. SANFORD, Warden.
No. 10828.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
May 9, 1944.
Rehearing Denied June 5, 1944.
Thomas Fitzgerald, in pro. per.
M. Neil Andrews, U. S. Atty., and Harvey H. Tisinger, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Atlanta, Ga., for appellee.
Before SIBLEY, McCORD, and LEE, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
The complaint on habeas corpus is that appellant was ill before and at the time of his trial, that the trial was unduly delayed, that he was not granted process to get at government's expense witnesses in confinement across the continent at Alcatraz and McNeils Island prisons; and that though counsel was appointed for him the counsel advised him to plead guilty and obtain four years of imprisonment, the prosecution contending for eight years, and the law authorizing twenty-five years. A plea of guilty entered under those circumstances was not under such duress as to make it and the sentence pronounced upon it void in a collateral attack upon it. The witnesses desired were outside the district and far beyond 100 miles, and no law provided for getting them at the expense of the government. 28 U.S.C.A. § 656. The refusal, if wrong, would be remediable by appeal and not by habeas corpus. The judgment discharging the writ is affirmed.