John Eugene Kniess v. United States

The appellant’s arrest in Phoenix, Arizona, terminated an escapade in which he had passed a series of bogus postal money orders in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. In one state, Washington, he was federally indicted for having unlawfully passed counterfeit “securities” of the United States. 18 U.S.C. § 472 . However, federal grand juries in all other affected jurisdictions returned indictments against Kniess for unlawfully passing forged “postal money orders. 18 U.S.C. § 500 .

Kniess ultimately agreed to plead guilty to the charges in all twelve indictments, and all actions were removed to the Arizona District Court for disposition pursuant to Rule 20 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The District Court sentenced Kniess to three concurrent ten-year terms for each count in the Washington section 472 indictment and to concurrent maximum five-year terms for each count in the remaining eleven indictments which charged violation of section 500.

Thereafter, the appellant, proceeding in forma pauperis and under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 , moved to vacate his sentence. He insisted, as he had prior to agreeing to…