Harrington v. Warden of Maryland House of Correction

Bruñe, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The applicant, Harrington, was convicted in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County on a charge of robbery with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment. He later sought a belated appeal, which was denied, and thereafter he sought Post Conviction relief. That was also denied after an apparently full hearing, and Harrington seeks leave to appeal.

His amended petition for relief stated the grounds therefor as follows: “that the State’s Attorney in this case knowingly and willfully knew that the testimony of Isaac Melvin Parker, Joseph Robert Smallwood and Dennis Stroy was false and said State’s Attorney participated in it and in getting it and that ⁶⁴¹ Dennis Stroy was unlawfully freed by the State of Maryland.” The last assertion, if true, does not afford any basis for relief to Harrington. The record before us shows that summons was issued for Stroy to testify at the Post Conviction hearing and that writs of habeas corpus ad testificandum were issued for the production of the applicant and of Smallwood and Parker at the hearing. It also indicates that a transcript of the proceedings at the original trial was furnished to the applicant at public expense prior to the hearing, but no copy is included in the record forwarded to us. Nor is there a copy of the transcript of proceedings at the Post Conviction hearing.

In his application for leave to appeal or his arguments in support thereof the applicant makes some complaints with regard to that hearing. Neither transcript is required to be included under our present Rule BK46; and if there were a more informative memorandum of the trial court perhaps we should find no need for either of them in order to determine on the apparent merits whether to grant or deny the