Ex Parte Greene

The petitioner asks leave to prosecute in forma pauperis his accompanying petition for writ of habeas corpus.

Petitioner was indicted for violation of 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 901 , 902, 905, plead guilty and received a sentence that will expire December 24, 1943. The act forbids one who has been convicted of a crime of violence to ship or receive a gun in interstate commerce, and makes possession of a gun by such a person presumptive evidence that it was so shipped.

In Tot v. United States and United States v. Delia, 319 U.S. 463 , 63 S.Ct. 1241, 1246 , 87 L.Ed. 1519 , decided June 7, 1943, the Supreme Court held the presumption unconstitutional because of absence of rational factual relationship between the premise (conviction of a crime of violence) and the conclusion (subsequent interstate shipment of a gun). The court further said: “Even if the presumption in question were in itself reasonable, we think that the nature of the offense, and the elements which go to constitute it, render it impossible to sustain the statute, for the reason that one element of the offense is the prior conviction of a crime of violence. If the presumption warrants conviction unless the defendant comes…