Townsend v. Burke, Warden (334 U.S. 736)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 14, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 334 U.S. 736 · 68 S. Ct. 1252
- Docket
- No. 542
- Argued
- April 27, 1948
- Decided
- June 14, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Black, Justice Rutledge, Justice Murphy
- Dissenting
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice Reed
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania holds petitioner prisoner under two indeterminate sentences, not exceeding 10 to 20 years, upon a plea of guilty to burglary and robbery. On review here of the State Supreme Court’s denial of habeas corpus, the prisoner demands a discharge by this Court on federal constitutional grounds. Petitioner, while a fugitive, was indicted on June 1, 1945, for burglary and armed robbery. Four of his alleged accomplices had been arrested on May 18, 1945, and signed a joint confession, while a fifth had been arrested on May 21, 1945, and had also confessed. Petitioner was arrested on June 3, 1945, and confessed on June 4. On June 5, after pleading guilty to two charges of robbery and two charges of burglary and not guilty to other charges, he was sentenced. Petitioner now alleges violation of his constitutional rights in that, except for a ten-minute conversation with his wife, he was held incommunicado for a period of 40 hours between his arrest and his plea of guilty. He does not allege that he was beaten, misused, threatened or intimidated, but only that he was held for that period and was several times interrogated. He does not allege that the questioning was continuous or that it had any coercive effect. The plea for relief because he was detained, as he claims, unlawfully is based on McNabb v.…
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