William Shane, Jr. v. United States

The petitioner, William Shane, Jr., an Indian who lived at the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, was convicted by a jury of first degree murder on July 12, 1939, in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. No appeal was taken from his conviction. On November 22, 1954, petitioner filed a motion to vacate and set aside his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 . Counsel was appointed to represent him. A hearing on this motion was delayed because of petitioner’s mental ineompetency. On June 1, 1956, a report from the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri, was filed stating that petitioner was then mentally competent. On June 7, 1956, a hearing was held on the merits of his section 2255 motion before United States District Judge Pray (the same judge who had presided during his trial in 1939). The motion was denied by Judge Pray on January 12, 1957.

Appellant contended in his 1954 motion that he had been arrested on January 27, 1939, when he was sixteen years old, that he had been threatened and mistreated by the FBI agents because of his refusal to answer questions, that he had been physically mistreated,…