Frank W. Holmes v. United States

BAZELON, Chief Judge:

This is an appeal from the District Court’s denial, after hearing, of appellant’s post-conviction motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate his sentence for robbery and impersonating an officer. The motion alleged that counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to invoke the insanity defense at trial.

Before trial, counsel obtained a report from Dr. Hyman Shapiro, a psychiatrist who had treated appellant on several occasions, stating that appellant was suffering from a mental disease, “psychoneurosis with anxiety and depression, chronic, superimposed upon the…