Stanley Halprin v. United States

Stanley Halprin is incarcerated at The Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island, San Pedro, California, under sentences aggregating ten years, imposed by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, for violations of 21 U.S.C.A. §§ 173 and 174, relating to narcotic drugs. The sentences were imposed on October 26, 1956. Upon completion of one third of the ten-year period Halprin learned that by reason of the provisions of 26 U.S.C.A. § 7237 (d) parole was not available to him. Being of the view that section 7237(d) cannot be applied to him without contravening the Constitution, Halprin commenced this habeas corpus proceeding in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division.

Challenging the validity of his continued incarceration, Halprin contends that the deprivation of the possibility of parole is cruel and unusual punishment proscribed by the Eighth Amendment. He also contends that because of the asserted arbitrary and unreasonable penalty classifications provided in the Narcotic Control Act of 1956, 70 Stat. 567 , 26 U.S.C.A. § 7237 , that statute offends the due process clause of the Fifth…