Donald Vandergrift v. United States

Convicted by a jury and sentenced on a charge of robbing postal officials, Donald Yandergrift brought this proceeding, under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 , to have the judgment and sentence vacated. The district court denied the motion, holding that the files and records of the case conclusively show that the petitioner is entitled to no relief. Vandergrift appealed and the district court granted leave to proceed on the appeal in forma pauperis. We appointed counsel to represent appellant in this court.

Several grounds for relief were alleged in Vandergrift’s section 2255 motion, but only one is renewed here. That ground is that his constitutional right to a fair trial by an impartial jury, guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, was contravened as the result of an improper remark made by the judge at the outset of the trial. The remark in question was as follows:

The circumstances under which this remark was made are stated below. Immediately after the case was called for trial, and in the presence of prospective jurors sitting in the court room, counsel for co-defendant Raymond John Wagner, speaking for all defendants, objected to proceeding with the trial until they were furnished…