Opinion ID: 343307
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Purpose of Section 2255's Hearing Requirement

Text: 41 I do not mean to disregard the language of section 2255 which requires a hearing unless the files and records conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief. I do intend, however, to ask whether Congress in employing that language meant to enable the Government to insist that useless evidentiary hearings be held, or whether Congress meant only to specify the conditions under which a prisoner could demand an evidentiary hearing as a matter of right. It may well be that in devising the section 2255 motion procedure, Congress did not address the problem of a conclusive loss for the Government. 5 42 In attributing legislative purpose, a court begins with the assumption that Congress acted reasonably in establishing the section 2255 hearing procedure. The question then immediately arises: why would a reasonable legislature require courts to hold evidentiary hearings when no facts are disputed, and why would a reasonable legislature require oral argument when the parties' written submissions are sufficient to decide a case? The function of an evidentiary hearing is to resolve contested issues of fact. See Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 309 & n. 6, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963). If the facts are not disputed, an evidentiary hearing is useless. And oral argument concerning issues of law if not necessary to improve the court's understanding of the issues is a luxury at best. I find it difficult to credit the argument that Congress in enacting section 2255 meant to have the federal courts make much ado about nothing. 6 I would therefore hold that where the files and records of a case conclusively show that the petitioner is entitled as a matter of law either to no relief or to full relief, the section 2255 court may and indeed should enter the appropriate order without holding an evidentiary hearing or oral argument. 43 If I believed that Congress meant section 2255 to require a hearing in all cases where the petitioner's claim is not rebutted by the files and records, I could hardly maintain that the section 2255 court need not hold redundant evidentiary hearings and listen to unnecessary oral argument. But the legislative history of section 2255 belies any such Congressional purpose. 44 Prior to the revision of the Judicial Code in 1948, it was common practice for federal habeas courts to grant relief without holding a hearing if no facts were contested and no useful purpose could be served by oral argument. As stated in the leading case of Walker v. Johnston, 312 U.S. 275, 284, 61 S.Ct. 574, 578, 85 L.Ed. 404 (1941): (O)n the facts admitted, it may appear that, as matter of law, the prisoner is entitled to the writ and to a discharge. This practice has long been followed by this court and by the lower courts. 7 A thorough sifting of the legislative history of section 2255 fails to unearth even a shard of evidence suggesting that Congress meant to change this practice. Instead, section 2255 was enacted to permit federal prisoners to seek postconviction relief in a court other than the district of confinement (where all habeas petitions had to be filed). The Supreme Court made this limited administrative purpose emphatically clear in United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205, 72 S.Ct. 263, 96 L.Ed. 232 (1952), the first section 2255 case to reach the Court: 45 (T)he sole purpose was to minimize the difficulties encountered in habeas corpus hearings by affording the same rights in another and more convenient forum. . . . The very purpose of Section 2255 is to hold any required hearing in the sentencing court because of the inconvenience of transporting court officials and other necessary witnesses to the district of confinement. (Emphasis added.) 46 342 U.S. at 219-221, 72 S.Ct. at 272-273; accord, H.R.Rep. No. 2646, 79th Cong., 2d Sess. (1946) 7; H.R.Rep. No. 308, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (1947) A120; S.Rep. No. 1559, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. (1948) 8-10. 47 Surely Congress, in attempting to more equally distribute the judicial business of federal habeas corpus petitions did not intend to saddle the federal courts under the new procedure with the responsibility of needless hearings, not required under the old, when the merits of a section 2255 motion can be conclusively determined on the basis of the files and records. The beneficiary of the hearing to which section 2255 refers was to be the prisoner, not the Government, for the section 2255 procedure represented a reduction in the number of hearings which some courts had felt compelled to afford a petitioner on successive applications. See the discussion of Chief Judge Parker, Chairman of the Judicial Conference Committee which drafted section 2255, in Limiting the Abuse of Habeas Corpus, 8 F.R.D. 171, 174-75 (1949). 48 I do not dispute that public policy requires that the Government be given notice and an opportunity to respond when there is a possibility that a criminal conviction will be vacated. But I can find no evidence in the legislative history of section 2255 indicating that the Government need be heard via an evidentiary hearing and oral argument. Rather, those procedures should be reserved for cases in which they could contribute to the court's understanding or the Government's articulation of its position. If the Government does not dispute the petitioner's version of the facts, I cannot imagine a responsible United States attorney insisting on an evidentiary hearing; and the utility of oral argument on issues of law is best left to the informed discretion of the section 2255 court. 49 My conclusion that no hearing is required by section 2255 when no facts are disputed and when oral argument is not helpful, is buttressed by the Supreme Court's consistent holding that the remedies available under section 2255 are exactly commensurate with that which had previously been available by habeas corpus in the court of the district where the prisoner was confined, Hill v. United States, 368 U.S. 424, 427, 82 S.Ct. 468, 471, 7 L.Ed.2d 417 (1962); accord, e. g., Davis v. United States, 417 U.S. 333, 334, 94 S.Ct. 2298, 41 L.Ed.2d 109 (1974); United States v. Morgan, 346 U.S. 502, 511, 74 S.Ct. 247, 98 L.Ed. 248 (1954); United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205, 214-229, 72 S.Ct. 263, 96 L.Ed. 232 (1952); Larson v. United States, 275 F.2d 673, 676 n. 5 (5th Cir. 1960). Given the fact that summary disposition of habeas petitions in the prisoner's favor was common prior to the enactment of section 2255, and the lack of any indication that Congress sought to alter this practice, I believe that to force a section 2255 applicant to endure the rigamarole of needless hearings would ignore the teaching of those Supreme Court decisions. 8