United States v. Charles Fred Rocha

Appellant was convicted in March, 1966 of having violated 21 U.S.C. § 174 and 26 U.S.C. § 4704 (a) and on appeal to this court his conviction was affirmed. Rocha v. United States, 387 F.2d 1019 (9th Cir. 1967). The only challenge to the conviction raised on appeal was that the trial court should have granted his pre-trial motion to suppress certain evidence.

The present appeal is from an Order . of the district court, made and filed on November 25, 1970, denying the motion of appellant for relief under and pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 .

The issues presented are: (1) Whether it was prejudicial error for Government counsel to comment upon inculpa-tory statements of the appellant during closing argument; (2) whether appellant is entitled to relief under the decision in Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752 , 89 S.Ct. 2034 , 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969); and (3) whether he was deprived of effective assistance of trial counsel.

After fully reviewing the record, we find and conclude that there is no merit to any of appellant’s contentions. Appellant cannot rely on the decision in Chimel, supra, for any relief since it cannot be applied retroactively. See: Williams v. United States, 91 S.Ct.…