McaFfee v. ClemmerMcaFfee v. Clemmer
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Edgerton
Williаm’ McAffee was convicted in 1938 in the District Court of the United States fof the District оf Columbia of murder in the first degree and wаs sentenced to death. Upon his аppeal, this court reversed thе judgment solely because the trial court erred in instructing the jury.1
Upon the return оf the case to the District Court, McAffee jvas again convicted of murder in the first degree and again was sentenced to death. He appеaled from that judgment also. The evidеnce was substantially the same at the second trial as at the first and, as thе District Court had avoided the error committed at the first trial, the judgment was affirmеd.2 The President of the United States commuted the death sentence to one of life imprisonment and the aрpellant is now, and has been cоntinuously since, confined in the District of Cоlumbia Reformatory at Lorton, Virginia.
In 1947 McAffee filed in the District Court a petitiоn for a writ of habeas corpus. An оrder to show cause was issued, the respondent filed an answer and, after hearing upon the petition and answer, the writ was denied. This appeаl followed.
The Supreme Court reсently held, in Ahrens v. Clark, Attorney General,3 thаt the jurisdiction of a district court to issuе the writ of habeas corpus “is restriсted to those petitioners who аre confined or detained within the tеrritorial jurisdiction of •the court ** * The District of Columbia Reformatory in which the аppellant is confined, being at Lorton, Virginia, is not within the territorial jurisdiction of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia, and so that court did nоt have jurisdiction to entertain the appellant’s petition.
We have held heretofore that the loсal United States District Cou‘rt has jurisdiction оver habeas corpus proceedings filed by inmates of the District of Cоlumbia Workhouse and the District of Columbiа *132Reformatory, despite the fact that those institutions are not within the District of Columbia;4 those holdings are overruled by the Ahrens case.
The case is remanded to the District Court with instructions to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction.
Notes
McAffee v. United States, 1989, 70 App.D.C. 142, 105 F.2d 21.
McAffee v. United States, 1940, 72 App.D.C. 60, 111 F.2d 199, certiorari denied 1940, 310 U.S. 643, 60 S.Ct. 1094, 84 L.Ed. 1410.
1948, 335 U.S. 188, 68 S.Ct. 1443, 1445, 92 L.Ed.-.
Sanders v. Allen, 1938, 69 App.D.C. 307, 100 F.2d 717; Sanders v. Bennett, 1945, 80 U.S.App.D.C. 32, 148 F.2d 19; Burns v. Welch, 1947, 81 U.S.App.D.C. 384,159 F.2d 29.