Payne v. Warden

Per Curiam. Alexander Payne applies for leave to appeal from an order filed by Judge Joseph C. Howard in the Criminal Court of Baltimore denying relief sought by applicant in his first petition under the Uniform Post Conviction Procedure Act. The application is granted and the matter remanded for further findings consistent with this opinion. ³⁹⁸ Judge Howard summarized the ease to this point: “Petitioner, Alexander Payne, was convicted of second-degree murder (Indictment No. 5067/ 1967) by Judge Albert L. Sklar on January 9, 1968 and sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment. “An appeal to the Court of Special Appeals was filed on January 10,1968. “A denial of an application for review of sentence was filed by the Review Panel on May 24, 1968. “The judgment was affirmed by the Court of Special Appeals on January 30, 1969, in an unreported opinion (Alexander Payne v. State of Maryland, No. 195, Sept. Term, 1968). “This post-conviction petition was filed on May 20, 1969, and a hearing was held before this Court on August 25,1969. “The petitioner has raised the following contentions : “His court-appointed attorney: “(a) failed to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from the Court of Appeals of Maryland. . .” 1 As to contention (a) the hearing judge found as follows: “Trial counsel for the petitioner, Michael Kaplan, Esq., testified that he filed an appeal for Payne on January 10, 1968, the day after he was convicted. He did not file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Court of Appeals because the petitioner, in response to a letter written by Kaplan informing him of the decision of the Court of Special Appeals, informed Kaplan that he was being fired and that his services were no longer