Opinion ID: 343307
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Ferrara Case

Text: 50 My interpretation here is not inconsistent with our recent decision in Ferrara v. United States, 547 F.2d 861 (5th Cir. No. 76-1426, 1977). In Ferrara, the prisoner filed a section 2255 motion to have his conviction and sentence vacated on the ground that the government had failed to correct the testimony of its key witness, allegedly known by the government to have perjured himself. 547 F.2d at 862. The Government filed a general denial as an answer, and the district court granted the motion without a hearing. We reversed. 51 The crucial distinction between Ferrara and the instant case is that in Ferrara the Government contested the facts, i.e., whether perjury did occur and whether the Government knowingly used perjured testimony, see 547 F.2d 861 at 862, while in this case the Government opposed the section 2255 motion solely on legal grounds. Properly read, Ferrara stands only for the proposition that the section 2255 motion cannot be granted without a hearing when the Government contests the petitioner's version of the facts. Our statement in Ferrara that (g)ranting (section 2255) relief . . . without a hearing is not authorized by statute, 547 F.2d at 863, was partially dictum. Moreover, our suggestion that Fontaine v. United States, 411 U.S. 213, 215, 93 S.Ct. 1461, 36 L.Ed.2d 169 (1973); Reed v. United States, 441 F.2d 569, 572 (9th Cir. 1971); and Tucker v. United States, 138 U.S.App.D.C. 345, 427 F.2d 615, 617 (1970), had construed section 2255 in accordance with its literal language must be understood in light of the actual facts and holdings of those three cases. Fontaine, Reed, and Tucker all reversed lower court decisions where the petition had been dismissed not granted without a hearing although the prisoner alleged facts which, if proved at an evidentiary hearing, would have entitled him to relief. Those cases merely applied the earlier Supreme Court decision of Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963), which announced a comprehensive set of rules specifying when a petition could be dismissed without a hearing. Neither they nor Ferrara confronted the question whether section 2255 hearings must be held when the parties raise only questions of law. 52 I would affirm the judgment of the district court.