Theodore Collins v. United States

This is an appeal from a conviction of criminal contempt. Appellant was convicted under Section 401 of Title 18 U.S.C., on ,the basis of his testimony before a United States grand jury, and sentenced to custody for-a period of three years.

The grand jury investigation, from which appellant’s conviction arose, was an attempt to determine whether the murder of Cecil (Hardrock) Thomas on October 27, 1957 was committed to prevent him from testifying in the Federal District Court in Los Angeles, California, on the date he had been subpoenaed to appear in a case in which the defendants therein had been charged with sales of heroin.

Appellant was brought before the grand jury from the California State Prison at San Quentin, California, where he is serving a life sentence imposed after he confessed killing Thomas in the course of a burglary and pleaded guilty to murder in the first degree.

A proper review of this appeal requires that we summarize the appellant’s testimony before the grand jury. During the course of the first day of his testimony, April 16, 1958, appellant related three wholly different and inconsistent accounts of the events concerning Thomas’ killing. Appellant first…