Baker v. Marbury

PER Curiam. This is an appeal from the denial of a petition for a writ of mandamus. It appears that Richard R. Baker, the petitioner-appellant is confined as a prisoner at the Norton Reformatory, Virginia, a Federal penal institution, under sentence imposed by a court of the District of Columbia, and that he was so confined at the time of filing this petition and the petition for a writ of habeas corpus referred to below. He was indicted in October, 1956, by the grand jury for ⁵⁷⁴ Prince George’s County, Maryland, on a charge of breaking into a storehouse.

Though it is not directly stated in the skimpy record before us, it seems a fair inference that he was imprisoned under the District of Columbia sentence before he could be brought to trial in Maryland. The length of that sentence does not appear. In September, 1957, Baker filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with Judge Charles C. Marbury of the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Maryland, sitting in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County. His object was either to cause himself to be brought before that court for a speedy trial or to cause the lifting of a detainer placed against him with the Lorton Reformatory.

Such detainers are customarily placed by the Sheriff. Since the prisoner was not confined by or under the authority of the State of Maryland, his petition was dismissed. He then filed the petition for a writ of mandamus in the present case. This petition was submitted to Judge John B. Gray, Jr., Chief Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit.

The petitioner seeks an order directed to Judge Marbury requiring him “to remove the warrant that is lodged against your petitioner.” We assume, as did Judge Gray, that the “warrant” means the detainer placed with the Lorton Reformatory authorities. Neither the placing nor the lifting of the detainer is a function of a Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit. It is also true, as Judge Marbury pointed out in the habeas corpus case, and as did Judge