John Russell Hanson v. United States

Appellant appeals from an order denying motion to vacate sentence and judgment. 28 U.S.C. § 2255 . This court has jurisdiction on appeal. 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

Appellant had previously been convicted on twenty-one of twenty-two counts of an indictment charging him with making false income tax refund claims against the government. That conviction was affirmed by this court. 271 F.2d 791 .

This motion below attacked the validity of but eight counts, affecting nine years of the total sentence. Nineteen years of the sentence is not attacked.

The sole legal question is whether appellant could and did waive any objection as to venue within the Central Division of the Southern District of California for the United States District Court when the crimes listed in eight of the counts with which he was charged had been committed within the Northern Division of the Southern District for California.

The Constitution of the United States grants an accused the right to a trial within the state and federal district in which his offense was committed. (Article III, Section 2, Clause 3, and Sixth Amendment.) That right was here respected. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure state “trial shall…