Lawson v. Gladden

This is a petition for postconviction relief under ORS 138.510 to 138.680. The prisoner is serving a sentence imposed in 1947 upon his plea of guilty to an information charging second-degree murder. His petition raises substantial questions concerning the validity of his waiver of counsel.

The fragmentary record indicates that on April 17, 1947, the prisoner was pulled off a badly beaten man upon whose body he was then committing an act of sodomy in the presence of four witnesses. The man from whom the prisoner was removed was at that time either dead or dying. In any event, the prisoner was…