Biography
Fletcher Mills challenged federal detention in Pennsylvania after authorities sought his removal to Alabama under the Fugitive Felon Act. A federal appellate opinion records that he was taken into custody in Philadelphia on March 22, 1949. He claimed the underlying knife assault was self-defense and argued that return to Alabama would expose him to an unfair trial and danger. The court rejected habeas relief; its decision is not an actual release record. Mills also appears in the December 1953 Laisvė prisoner-aid roster, but that listing does not prove continuous confinement since 1949.
Sources and evidence limits
Laisvė, December 19, 1953, page 3. United States ex rel. Mills v. Reing, 191 F.2d 297 (1951).
The opinion expressly records physical custody on March 22, 1949. April 1 was the later removal commitment, not the initial arrest. July 12, 1951 was the appellate decision and September 18 denial of rehearing, neither actual discharge. No continuous period through the 1953 roster or release from an earlier 1945 episode is assumed.
