Johnny Harris v. Harry J. Wilters, Jr., Individually and as Circuit Judge of the Twenty-Eighth Judicial Circuit, Baldwin County, Alabama

The issue presented for review is quite narrow: Did the trial court abuse its discre tion in denying appellant’s motion for a mandatory preliminary injunction ordering the state to provide appellant with funds to prosecute a coram nobis proceeding in state court? We hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion. It is necessary to relate the somewhat complicated procedural history of this case in order to facilitate an understanding of this opinion. Appellant, a black indigent Alabama prisoner, was sentenced to five life sentences in 1971, pursuant to guilty pleas entered on one…