This appeal is from an order of the District Court denying the motion filed under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 by appellant, Harold Eugene Kistner, Jr. (hereinafter referred to as “defendant”), to vacate judgment and sentence which the trial court entered upon one of defendant’s two convictions under separate indictments. In Criminal Action No. 4548, the defendant was tried before a jury on a nineteen count indictment and found guilty under Count XIX for causing the delivery by mail on January 19, 1961, of an envelope addressed to one Dr. Klass G. Onken, Wilmont, Minnesota, containing an unregistered stock certificate representing 1,000 shares of $1.00 par value common stock in the Northern Biochemical Corporation of Iowa, in violation of 15 U.S.C.A. § 77e(a) (2). A second, twenty-two count indictment against the defendant was returned in Criminal Action No. 4550. All counts, save two, were dismissed by the court upon motion of the Government following defendant’s plea of guilty to Counts I and XIII. Defendant was charged in Count I with aiding and abetting in the misapplication of national bank funds in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 2 and 656; while Count XIII alleged a violation of 15 U.S.C.A. § 77q (a) for his fraudulent sale through the mails to Dr. Onken of the same securities described in Count XIX of the first indictment. When sentenced by the District Court pursuant to the general penalty proviso of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C.A. § 77x, the defendant received five years’ imprisonment under Count XIX of No. 4548, ordered to run concurrently with a like term imposed under Count I of No. 4550 and three years’ imprisonment under Count XIII of the latter indictment, ordered to run consecutively to the five 'year sentences, for a total sentence of eight years.
The District Court correctly found that defendant’s motion under § 2255 improvidently attacked collaterally the judgment and sentence under Count XIII of No. 4550, because service thereof has not been commenced by defendant who is presently in custody for the third year of his concurrent five year terms. Section 2255, like its ancestral writ of
habeas corpus,
is only available to a prisoner entitled to be released from custody of the sentence being served. Heflin v. United States,
Assuming the double jeopardy question is reachable upon the merits through Rule 35, the District Court properly denied defendant its substantive relief. The crux of the defendant’s argument is that Count XIX of the first indictment for violation of § 77e(a) (2) and Count XIII of the second indictment for violation of § 77q(a), constitute a single offense because to sustain both convictions, the Government must prove identical facts, viz: the mailing of a certain unregistered stock certificate to the duped investor, Dr. Klass G. Onken.
Whether the attack on double punishment or successive prosecution for a single offense has been raised, respectively, in response to one indictment with multiple counts, or, as here, under the double jeopardy provision of the Fifth Amendment, the legal touchstone for determining the separate charges’ identicalness is indistinguishable. The Supreme Court has long held in cases involving a single, multi-count indictment that:
“(T)he test of identity of offenses is whether the same evidence is required to sustain them; if not, then the fact that both charges relate to and grow out of one transaction does not make a single offense where two are defined by the statutes.” Morgan v. Devine,237 U.S. 632 , 641,35 S.Ct. 712 , 715,59 L.Ed. 1153 (1915).
and stated differently, but to the same effect:
“(T)hat, where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one is whether each provision requires proof of a fact which the' other does not.” Blockburger v. United States,284 U.S. 299 , 304,52 S.Ct. 180 , 182,76 L.Ed. 306 (1932).
Instances in this Court of similar application of the Supreme Court’s “same evidence” test in determining whether separate counts of a single indictment or information validly allege more than one offense appear in Harris v. United States,
Likewise, considerable authority holds that for a plea of double jeopardy to prevail on the theory of separate indictments for a single offense, it must be shown proof of the same facts will sustain a conviction under each indictment, inasmuch as the same act may violate two separate statutes. Harlow v. United States,
The order appealed from is affirmed.
This Court is appreciative of the gratuitous and highly competent representation afforded the defendant by Wallace W. Huff, court-appointed, appellate counsel.
