Colson

Petitioner, James Colson, along with several co-defendants, was indicted during the April term of 1921 in the Western Division of the Northern District of Ohio under Section 197 of the Criminal Code (Title 18 U.S.C., Sec. 320 , 18 U.S.C.A. § 320 ) providing that “Whoever shall assault any person having lawful charge, control, or custody of any mail matter, with intent to rob, steal, or purloin such mail matter or any part thereof, or shall rob any such person of such mail or any part thereof, shall, for a first offense, be imprisoned not more than ten years; and if in effecting or attempting to effect' such robbery, he shall wound the person having custody of the mail, or put his life in jeopardy by the use of a dangerous weapon, or for a subsequent offense, shall be imprisoned twenty-five years.”

The charges contained in the indictment returned against petitioner and his co-defendants arose out of the perpetration on or about February 17, 1921, at Toledo, Ohio, of a robbery of mail matter from employees of the Post Office Department in charge of the mail, in which robbery several registered and ordinary mail pouches were taken and the lives of the postal employees were put in…