Kimbro v. Bomar

This is an appeal by Carl Kimbro from an order of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Kimbro is imprisoned in the Tennessee State Penitentiary, having been convicted in the Shelby County, Tennessee, Criminal Court of murder in the first degree while in the perpetration of a robbery. The jury which convicted him fixed the punishment at death by electrocution. His conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Tennessee in an unreported opinion handed down July 26, 1961. Kimbro then sought habeas corpus in the Tennessee courts and the denial of his petition was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Tennessee in an unreported, opinion handed down on September 7, 1962. Following these state court proceedings, the Governor of Tennessee, on October 26, 1962, commuted Kimbros death sentence to a term of ninety-nine years in the state penitentiary. Upon Kimbros application to the United States Supreme Court, the following order was entered on January 7, 1963: