Sanderlin v. Smyth‪.‬

This is an appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia quashing a writ of habeas corpus, dismissing the petition for the writ and remanding petitioner to the custody of the Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary by whom he was held pursuant to a judgment and sentence of the Circuit Court of norfolk County, Virginia. In the year 1940, the petitioner was indicted, tried and found guilty in the Circuit Court of Norfolk County of the crime of murder, and by that court was sentenced to the penitentiary for the term of his natural life. The conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia on June 9, 1941. Sanderlin v. Com., 177 Va. 888, 15 S.E.2d 116. On March 9, 1943, petitioner applied to the Supreme Court of Appeals for a writ of habeas corpus asking that his conviction be declared void and that he be released from imprisonment. This petition was denied, and petitioner, without attempting to review the denial by certiorari from the Supreme Court of the United States, applied to the court below for a writ of habeas corpus, setting forth the same grounds urged in the petition filed with the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.