Court Opinion

ID: 9442354
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:44:48.032735+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:04.336030
License: Public Domain

KERNER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I cannot agree that a prisoner whose guilt was established by a regular verdict and who has made no contention that the judgment finding him guilty of murder was void, should escape punishment under the facts in this case.
Cook was convicted of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. On April 6, 1945, he filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in a circuit court of Indiana. In this petition he alleged that within six months after his conviction of murder he was prevented by the prison warden and prison employees from mailing or otherwise sending out his appeal papers, and that by reason thereof, he “has been and now is deprived of the equal protection of the law and his said imprisonment is in violation of said Fourteenth Amendment.” The petition was denied by the LaPorte Circuit Court. On appeal, the judgment was affirmed, State ex rel. Cook v. Howard, 223 Ind. 694, 64 N.E.2d 25, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Cook v. Howard, 327 U.S. 808, 66 S.Ct. 960, 90 L.Ed. 1032.
On October 4, 1946, he filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Indiana for allowa'nce of appeal from the judgment convicting him of murder. In this petition he again alleged substantially the same facts contained in his petition for habeas corpus. The court entertained the proceeding on its merits. True, no oral testimony was heard, but the parties submitted the question to the Supreme Court of Indiana upon affidavits, and that court, upon consideration of the affidavits, denied the petition. Thus, the court held that Cook’s imprisonment for the crime of murder was not in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Cook, still claiming a violation of his constitutional rights, filed an application for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, but it was denied Cook v. Indiana, 330 U.S. 841, 67 S.Ct. 981, 91 L.Ed. 1287.
Based upon the same grounds alleged in his petition for habeas corpus filed in the LaPorte Circuit Court and in his petition for allowance of appeal filed in the Supreme Court of Indiana, Cook, on October 22, 1948, filed the present petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Under these circumstances I do not believe the District Court was justified in issuing the writ. Ex Parte Hawk, 321 U.S. 114, 64 S.Ct. 448, 88 L.Ed. 572, and Wade v. Mayo, 334 U.S. 672, 68 S.Ct. 1270, 92 L.Ed. 1647. I would reverse the judgment with directions to dismiss the petition.