John L. Battaglia v. United States

Appellant Battaglia is a federal prisoner who was convicted on August 19, 1964, for having violated 18 U.S.C. § 1343 . He was convicted on six counts of the indictment under which he was charged, and the convictions on two of the counts were affirmed by this court. Battaglia v. United States, 349 F.2d 556 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 382 U.S. 955 , 86 S.Ct. 430 , 15 L.Ed.2d 360 (1965). Thereafter, on July 15, 1966, Battaglia filed a motion, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 , to set aside and vacate his conviction. A number of contentions were advanced in the motion, but only two of them require our attention at this time. These two allegations are (1) that in the original criminal proceedings Battaglia was not adequately represented by competent counsel and (2) that he was not mentally competent, during all stages of the criminal proceedings, to understand the nature of the proceedings and to cooperate with his counsel. In support of his motion, Battaglia filed his own affidavit, the affidavits of a pharmacist and of two medical doctors, and the affidavit of Harold A. Abeles, who was Battaglia’s attorney throughout all of the original trial, except for the first day thereof. The…