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321 F.2d 898

Docket No. 20164.

Brown v. United States

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided Aug. 20, 1963.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1963-08-20

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently November 1966

3 federal appellate ·

2 counsel of record

Relies on Townsend v. Sain

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1963-08-20

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¶1*899Edward L. Cates, Jackson, Miss., William H. Brown, Gulfport, Miss., for appellant.

¶2Robert E. Hauberg, U. S. Atty., Jackson, Miss., E. Donald Strange, Asst. U. S. Atty., Jackson, Miss., for appellee.

¶3Before PHILLIPS,* CAMERON and WISDOM, Circuit Judges.

¶5PER CURIAM.

¶6This is an appeal from a judgment of the District Court dismissing, after a full hearing, a petition for writ of ha-beas corpus. Petitioner is being held by the Veterans Administration Center as an incompetent person under authority of two commitment orders of the Chancery Court of Copiah County, Mississippi.

¶7Appellant was committed to the Hospital or Center in 1955 upon the affidavit of his wife and after a hearing1 in the state court. He “eloped” several times, but was finally apprehended and committed again in 1961. The petition for habeas corpus attacked the 1961 commitment.

¶8Inasmuch as the 1955 commitment was valid, we need not decide appellant’s contentions as to the 1961 commitment. Appellant’s argument, that the introduction of the wife’s affidavit in the habeas corpus proceeding was in violation of the statute 2 making a spouse an incompetent witness, is without merit. The commitment statute, Note 1, supra, necessarily amends the marital privilege rule to the extent that “any citizen of the State … may make affidavit ….” If the affidavit was properly a part of the record of the state commitment proceeding, it was necessarily before the reviewing court.

¶9Though probably not required to do so in this type of case,3 the court below held a full hearing and found as a fact that appellant was incompetent and thus not entitled to be released. The judgment appealed from is

¶10Affirmed.

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