Willie Lee Knight v. United States

On November 22, 1954, the appellant filed in the lower court a motion to correct what he claimed to be illegal and excessive sentences in a proceeding under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 . He contended that the United States attorney had failed to file an information of the kind prescribed in 26 U.S.C.A. § 2557 (b) (l).in connection with the proceeding which established by his admission in open court a. prior narcotics conviction. The lower court denied this motion on December 17, 1954.

On January 22, 1958, appellant was sentenced to five years in prison for a narcotics violation under 26 U.S.C.A. § 2553 (a). This was the “prior conviction” here involved. He requested, and was granted a stay of mittimus for one day to take care of various business and personal affairs. During this day of grace appellant committed two further narcotics offenses by attempting to dispose of an estimated $300,000 worth of narcotics by mailing them to San Francisco. This transaction was discovered by the Bureau of Narcotics. For this offense appellant was indicted on February 18, 1953 for violation of 21 U.S. C.A. § 174 and 26 U.S.C.A. § 2553 (a). After being fully advised of the charge he waived counsel and…