EDWARD CARDENAS SANCHEZ, APPELLANT,
v.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The court held that a defendant's bare allegation of past drug addiction is insufficient to raise the issue of mental incompetence at the time of a guilty plea, absent evidence of drug use during incarceration.
Appellant pleaded guilty to illegally purchasing narcotics after interrupting his trial. He later moved to vacate the judgment, alleging mental incomp…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Mental Incompetence cases and more on FLexlaw
PER CURIAM:
This is an appeal from a denial of a motion to vacate, 28 U.S.C. § 2255, a judgment based on a plea of guilty of illegally purchasing narcotics, 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a).
The District Court denied relief without an evidentiary hearing, holding that the files and records of the case conclusively show that the appellant is entitled to no relief. We find no error and affirm.
The appellant, represented by counsel, interrupted his trial with a request to be re-arraigned on the tax count of the indictment. The court accepted the plea after being assured by the appellant that he was pleading guilty voluntarily and understandingly.
Appellant alleged in his § 2255 motion that he was mentally incompetent at the time due to narcotics addiction. He had been continuously in jail for almost three months prior to the date on which he pleaded guilty, and he did not allege! that he used any drugs during that time. Cf. Cooper v. Holman, 5 Cir. 1966, 356 F. 2d 82.
The District Court held that the appellant’s bare allegation of his history of drug addiction was insufficient to raise the issue of lack of mental competency. Accord, Streator v. United States, 5 Cir. 1966, 367 F. 2d 384; Williams v. United States, 5 Cir. 1966, 367 F. 2d 143.
The court likewise found that the allegation of wrongful inducement of the guilty plea by counsel was without merit, as evidenced by the appellant’s own replies to questions of the court at the time the plea was entered. See Pursley v. United States, 5 Cir. 1968, 391 F. 2d 224; Helpman v. United States, 5 Cir. 1967, 373 F. 2d 401; Williams v. United States, supra.
After a careful examination of the record, we have concluded that the findings of the District Court are not clearly erroneous. Rule 52(a), F.R.Civ.P. Therefore the judgment of the District Court is
Affirmed.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Myron Gerald Hinds v. United States, 429 F.2d 1322 (9th Cir. 1970)
-
Jackson v. United States, 512 F.2d 772 (5th Cir. 1975)
-
Perez v. United States, 445 F.2d 791 (5th Cir. 1971)
Authorities Cited
- Cooper v. Holman, 356 F.2d 82 (5th Cir. 1966)
- Pursley v. United States, 391 F.2d 224 (5th Cir. 1968)
- Helpman v. United States, 373 F.2d 401 (5th Cir. 1967)
- Streator v. United States, 367 F.2d 384 (5th Cir. 1966)
- Williams v. United States, 367 F.2d 143 (5th Cir. 1966)