Davis v. Warden of Maryland Penitentiary

Horney, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an application by Benjamin Davis for leave to appeal from the denial of a writ of habeas corpus by Michael Paul Smith, J., of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. The petitioner was tried and found guilty of murder in the first degree, without capital punishment, by a jury in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County (Taylor, J.), and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Penitentiary. The petitioner assigned fourteen reasons why he should be granted the writ, four of which were made for the first time on this application, and cannot be considered here.

Wain v. Warden, 215 Md. 650 , 138 A. 2d 482 (1958). Of the remaining ten, four involved arguments of fact and irrelevant points of law. Judge Smith properly ruled: (i) that the questions as to a confession allegedly obtained by inducements and coercion could have been raised on appeal, but not on habeas corpus [Hovey v. Warden, 215 Md. 612 , 137 A. 2d 208 (1957)]; (ii) that the trial court was not obliged to summon witnesses for the petitioner unless the petitioner had made a request therefor, which was not alleged [Obenstine v. Warden, 198 Md. 648 , 80 A. 2d 610 (1951)] ; (iii) that the allegation of perjured testimony, without a further allegation that the State knowingly used it, was not sufficient [Smith v. Warden, 213 Md. 643 , 131 A. 2d 392 (1957)]; and (iv) that the petitioner had not made a reasonable effort to perfect an appeal and that there was no duty on the trial judge to advise the defendant that he had a right to appeal [Finley v. Warden, 211 Md. 650 , 127 A. 2d 134 (1956)]. The