Farley v. Skeen

This is an appeal from an order dismissing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. See Farley v. Skeen, D.C., 113 F.Supp. 736. Appellant was convicted in a West Virginia state court of the crime of murder and was given sentence of death, which was affirmed on appeal by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. Appellant was represented by counsel both in the trial court and in the court of appeals and the opinion of the latter court went fully into the circumstances of the trial. State v. Farley, 125 W.Va. 266, 23 S.E.2d 616. The death sentence was commuted by the Governor of the state to life imprisonment and the appellant has since, through applications for habeas corpus, made a number of attacks upon the proceedings leading to his conviction. He made application for the writ to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, which was denied on November 26, 1951, but he did not apply to the Supreme Court of the United States for certiorari to review that decision. A direct application to the Supreme Court for habeas corpus was denied March 24, 1952. See Farley v. Skeen, Warden, 343 U.S. 902, 72 S. Ct. 643, 96 L. Ed. 1322. A prior application to the court below was denied October 15, 1952. Farley v. Skeen, Warden, D.C., 107 F.Supp. 881.