Hemsley v. Warden

Per Curiam. This is an application for leave to appeal from a denial of post conviction relief by Judge Roscoe H. Parker in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, on March 29, 1967. The Applicant was convicted of murder in the first degree in 1953 and received a life sentence. A direct appeal was entered by his attorneys and thereafter withdrawn before a transcript of the testimony at his trial was prepared.

The record indicates that the court reporter at the Applicant’s 1953 trial died during the interval between that trial and the instant proceeding wherein a transcript of the original trial has been requested. The unusual shorthand method used by the reporter at the original trial renders any attempt at present transcription impossible. The Applicant’s sole contention is that his inability to obtain a transcript of his original trial offends his constitutional rights and entitles him to a new trial. We disagree.

See State v. Hance, 2 Md. App. 162 ; Moore v. Warden, 237 Md. 613 ; Bauerlien v. Warden, 236 Md. 346 ; State v. Long, 235 Md. 125 . In Long, supra, Judge Henderson (later Chief Judge) spoke for the Court as follows (p. 127): “It is unfortunate that the judge who presided at the original trial in the instant case is dead, and that ⁶⁰⁵ the court stenographer’s notes cannot be transcribed. We think,