Claude Jason Lewis v. C. C. Peyton, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary

J. SPENCER, BELL, Circuit Judge:

The petitioner appeals from a denial of the writ of habeas corpus. The facts show that court was convened in the Tazewell County Courthouse on August 21, 1961; that without any order of record, the judge, the prosecutor, the sheriff, court appointed defense counsel and the petitioner next appear at the home of the prosecutrix which was located near the Town of Pocahontas, an old and nearly abandoned mining village in a sparsely settled rural area of Virginia — some 25 to 30 miles from Tazewell. There, the judge (the petitioner had waived a jury) heard the…