Joseph Kenneth Williams v. United States

Joseph Kenneth Williams appeals from an order denying a motion, made under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 , to set aside concur rent sentences imposed by a court of the United States. The sentences were imposed on April 28,1960, following Williams’ conviction, after a jury trial, on charges growing out of a bank robbery at Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane, Washington, on December 3, 1959. Two of the concurrent sentences were for twenty years and the third was for five years.

Appellant specifies as error the failure of the district court to grant him a hearing before disposing of his motion.

A district court hearing on any such motion must be held “(u)nless the motion and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief * * * ” 28 U.S.C. § 2255 . Tweedy v. United States, 9 Cir., 276 F.2d 649, 652 .

The district court held, in effect, that such a conclusive showing was made in this case because the questions which Williams sought to raise could not be determined in a section 2255 proceeding.

We agree. The sole basis of the motion was that, by reason of an unlawful search of his apartment, articles were then or thereafter seized which were…