Court Opinion

ID: 9445672
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:36:10.255053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:22.476911
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Chief judge
(concurring).
I agree with the affirmance here and the ground upon which it is placed. But since McGann is a persistent movant and since there seems to be one underlying issue troubling him, I think it more constructive and in keeping with our guardianship (more or less) of those incarcerated in our prisons to suggest a course which might and should settle things. McGann has been ill advised to make foolish charges — contrary to the obvious indications of the record— against his court appointed lawyer and, more lately, against the Assistant U. S. Attorney. For actually he makes no complaint against his twenty-year sentence from the Maryland federal court and his real grievance is that he may have to serve nearly a year more under his sentence from the court below. This comes about because he was sentenced in Maryland on September 24, 1954, and in New York on August 3, 1955. Judge Ryan below was specifically asked by McGann’s counsel to make his sentence completely concurrent and apparently so intended, for his formal judg*673ment of August 3, 1955, reads: “TWENTY (20) YEARS to run concurrently with sentence imposed in the United States District Court in Maryland.” Is that wholly concurrent, or is it actually some 10% months longer? I think McGann may well have some doubts about that, as to which a simple motion to correct or clarify the sentence could settle the ambiguity. See Crowe v. United States, 6 Cir., 200 F.2d 526; Miller v. United States, 5 Cir., 128 F.2d 519, 520, 521, certiorari denied 317 U.S. 626, 63 S.Ct. 36, 87 L.Ed. 506; Holloway v. United States, 89 U.S.App.D.C. 332, 191 F.2d 504; F.R.Cr.P., rule 35 and Committee Note. Conceivably we might accept the present papers as so requesting and refer them to Judge Ryan for clarification; at any rate a direct motion — for which no hearing is necessary or appropriate — would produce the desired correction or explanation.