Cole v. Warden

Thompson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. On July 27, 1962, the Petitioner was found guilty in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County under four indictments for forgery and one indictment for conspiracy, by Judge John E. Raine, Jr., sitting without a jury, and was sentenced to three years consecutive under each of the forgery indictments ²² and eighteen months consecutive for conspiracy. Judgment and sentence was affirmed by the Court of Appeals of Maryland in Cole v. State, 232 Md. 111 , 194 A. 2d 278 , cert. den. 375 U. S. 980 , 11 L. Ed. 2d 425 , 84 S. Ct. 503 (January 6, 1964). The Petitioner filed his first petition for relief under the Uniform Post Conviction Procedure Act on February 5, 1964, which relief was denied by Judge James J. Lindsay on March 23, 1964, and application for leave to appeal therefrom was denied.

Cole v. Warden, 235 Md. 683 , 202 A. 2d 596 . The present petition, being the second application for relief under the Uniform Post Conviction Procedure Act, was filed June 21, 1965. Counsel was thereafter appointed to represent the Petitioner in these proceedings. A hearing was held before the Honorable Walter M. Jenifer on April 12, 1966, and a second hearing on reargument on June 3, 1966, at which time relief was denied.

The burden of the Petitioner’s contention below was that