Downer v. Dunaway

DEAVER, District Judge.

John Downer was convicted in the superior court of Elbert county, Ga., of rape, and was sentenced to be electrocuted on the 15th day of June, 1931. On the 13th day of June, 1931, through his counsel, he presented to this court a petition for the writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he had been denied due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. This court refused to grant the writ, but made a certificate of probable cause so as to enable the petitioner to have the sufficiency of his petition passed upon by the Circuit Court…