Gerard Peabody v. United States

Appellant appeals from an order of the District Court denying, without hearing, his third motion to vacate sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 .

Following trial to a jury, at which appellant was represented by counsel of his own choosing, appellant was found guilty on each of seven counts of an indictment charging violations of 28 U.S.C. § 371 (conspiracy), and 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a), (b), (c) and (d) (bank robbery). On April 26, 1957, he was committed to the custody of the Attorney General for a total of thirty years imprisonment. No written notice of appeal was filed from the judgment of conviction.

Approximately a year and a half later, in September 1958, appellant filed in the district court a motion to vacate sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 . In this motion appellant claimed that his right of .direct appeal was denied, in that he was frustrated in the exercise of such right by the actions of the Court and the United States Marshal. He also claimed that the district court had committed errors during the trial. The district court denied the motion and prepared and filed a lengthy, detailed Memorandum Opinion which appears in United States v. Peabody, 173 F.Supp. 413…