Frederick Allen Hockenberry v. United States

Hockenberry appeals from his conviction under an indictment charging him with committing an assault with a deadly weapon at the Federal Correctional Institution at Lompoc, California. We affirm, but direct that the sentence be corrected.

We consider each of Hockenberry’s contentions, and the specific facts relating to them, separately:

It was stipulated that the Federal Correctional Institution at Lompoc is within the “special jurisdiction” of the United States as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 7 (3). The indictment was drawn on the theory that the Assimilative Crimes Act, now 18 U.S.C. § 13 , made California Penal Code § 245 applicable. However, 18 U.S.C. § 13 makes state law applicable only if the “act or omission * * * [is] not made punishable by any enactment of Congress * * Here, as the government now concedes, there is an applicable act of Congress. 18 U.S.C. § 113 provides:

It follows that Cal.Pen.C. § 245 is not applicable. Williams v. United States, 1946, 327 U.S. 711 , 66 S.Ct. 778 , 90 L.Ed. 962 .

This, however, does not dispose of the problem. The California section proscribes “an assault upon the person of another with a deadly weapon or instrument or by any means of…