Thanos v. Superintendent, Maryland State Reformatory for Males

Bruñe, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an application for leave to appeal from a denial of the writ of Habeas Corpus. Petitioner was tried and convicted of burglary in the Criminal Court of Baltimore and was sentenced to an indeterminate term of three years in the Maryland State Reformatory for Males. Petitioner’s contentions in this Court are: (1) That the police and alleged accomplice who testi ⁶⁶⁷ fied against him perjured themselves, claiming specifically that the police testified falsely that he had made an oral confession of guilt; (2) That the evidence was insufficient to convict; (3) That the counsel appointed by the trial court to represent him was incompetent in that he seemed to take no interest in the outcome of the case and in that he advised petitioner not to testify in his own behalf; and (4) That the trial judge lacked impartiality by reason of the fact that he had previously tried five defendants who were apparently involved in the same crime.

No transcript of the proceedings in the trial court has been filed in this Court. (1) and (2). “The legal sufficiency of the evidence, or the question of guilt or innocence, or the commission of perjury by witnesses, cannot be made a basis for the issuance of a Writ of Habeas Corpus.” Chinquina v. Warden, 198 Md. 658, 659 , 80 A. 2d 612, 613 ; Thompson v. Warden, 198 Md. 668, 670 , 81 A. 2d 596, 597 . If the testimony of the witnesses against the accused was perjured, as he now charges, redress lies with the pardoning power. Billman v. Warden, 197 Md. 683 , 79 A. 2d 540 .

(3) This Court has refused to recognize the contention of ineptness, lack of diligence, or incompetency of counsel as a ground for the issuance of the writ, at least in the absence of any allegations of fraud, bad faith or collusion by defense counsel with any State official; and the application in this case does not suggest any ground for any such allegation of misconduct, nor