Record
Court opinion
1948-12-04
CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the opinion
Compagna v. Hiatt, 82 F. Supp. 295 (N.D. Ga. 1948)
Judge Underwood's findings of 4 December 1948 on the habeas petitions of Louis Campagna (spelled Compagna) and Charles Gioe at the Atlanta penitentiary: sentenced 31 December 1943, paroled 13 August 1947, retaken 23 July 1948. The court held the warrants void; reconsideration was denied 20 December 1948.
- Date
- 1948-12-04
- Kind
- court-opinion
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Docket
- Nos. 2329, 2330
- Rights
- Opinion of a United States court. Works of the federal judiciary are in the public domain in the United States (17 U.S.C. § 105), and judicial opinions carry no copyright. The text was read on CourtListener.
District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Judge Underwood, Nos. 2329 and 2330. The respondent, named in the caption as Hiatt, was the warden of the Atlanta penitentiary; his first name is not printed in the text read.
The findings state that the petitioners, “after conviction by a jury, were, on the 31st day of December, 1943, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, sentenced to terms of ten years imprisonment upon an indictment charging violation of the Anti-Racketeering Act.” “They were, on August 13, 1947, released on parole. They remained at large on parole until arrested on July 23, 1948 upon Parole Violator Warrants dated July 21, 1948 and signed by Judge Fred Rogers, Member of the United States Board of Parole. They were immediately thereafter returned to the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia.”
The court rejected the attack on the conviction itself, but held that on the unrebutted evidence no Board member had information of a parole violation when the warrants issued; without such information “the issuance of the warrants would be arbitrary or capricious, which the law never permits.” A second part of the opinion denies motions for reconsideration made “for the sole reason that the Parole Board has now revoked the paroles, such action having been taken on December 16, 1948.” CourtListener dates that denial December 20, 1948.
That date matches the stamp “Discharged by Order of Court DEC 20 1948” on the Atlanta index cards of both men. The Fifth Circuit reversed in 178 F.2d 42.
