Hamm v. Warden of Maryland Penitentiary

Per Curiam. This is an application for leave to appeal from an order entered by Judge Joseph R. Byrnes, sitting in the Criminal Court of Baltimore, denying relief under the Maryland Post Conviction Procedure Act (the Act) on October 26, 1964, after a hearing thereon. On May 3, 1963, the applicant, Lloyd Hamm, was tried and convicted in the Criminal Court of Baltimore before Judge Anselm Sodaro, sitting without a jury, of robbery with a deadly weapon and sentenced to serve twenty years in the Maryland Penitentiary. At the trial, Franklin Knox, a co-defendant, testified to the applicant’s participation in the robbery, although Knox had denied the applicant’s complicity at the preliminary hearing.

We affirmed that conviction in Hamm v. State, 233 Md. 248 (1964), holding, inter alia, that the mere showing of contradictory statements of Knox made at different times did not require his testimony to be stricken. We noted that the credibility of the witnesses is primarily for the trier of facts. At the hearing on this petition before Judge Byrnes on October 26, Knox stated that his testimony before Judge Sodaro implicating the applicant in the robbery was untrue. On these facts, the applicant raises three contentions, namely, (1) Suppression of evidence by the State, (2) Ineptitude of counsel constituting a denial of the effective assistance of counsel, and (3) Knowing use of perjured testimony by the State.

The first contention amounts to no more than a bare allegation without supporting facts. Under such circumstances the question is not properly before us. Md. Rule BK46 b. To support his second contention the applicant points to what he claims to be the inadequate amount of time counsel spent conferring