United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Mitchell v. United States, 368 U.S. 439 (1962)

Mitchell v. United States

No. 448, Misc.

Decided January 22, 1962

368 U.S. 439

Syllabus

In a Federal District Court, petitioner was convicted of robbery in the District of Columbia and sentenced to imprisonment. He subsequently filed in that court a paper entitled "Motion for Dismissal of Sentence and Reversal of Verdict," claiming, inter alia, that materially false testimony had been used against him at the trial. That court treated that motion as one to vacate sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and denied it. The Court of Appeals affirmed, though petitioner had produced in that court, for the first time, an affidavit of a police captain which contradicted the testimony of a prosecution witness.

Held: certiorari granted, judgment vacated, and case remanded to the District Court for a hearing upon petitioner's motion, treated as a motion for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence.

Reported below: 110 U.S.App.D.C. 322, 293 F.2d 161.