Robert L. Rudolph v. Walter L. Allen

BY THE COURT:

Robert Rudolph is a prisoner of the State of Alabama, serving sentences totaling thirty-five years following his 1974 conviction in the Circuit Court of Montgomery, Alabama, for crimes against nature and for second degree murder. In 1980 he instituted this action in the district court1 against Walter Allen, his court-appointed counsel in the state criminal proceedings, seeking damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for ineffective assistance of counsel.

The court dismissed the action under the doctrine of res judicata; in 1977, it had dismissed an identical § 1983 suit by Rudolph against…