Maurice Sanford and Jim Johnson v. Terrell Don Hutto, Commissioner, Arkansas Department of Correction

This is an appeal by the Commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Correction from a final judgment granting habeas corpus relief to Maurice Sanford and Jim Johnson. Sanford and Johnson cross appeal from an order denying their motion to release pending retrial.

In October, 1969, Sanford and Johnson, two black men, were convicted by jury of first degree" rape in St. Francis County, Arkansas. After exhausting state remedies, petitioners filed this habeas corpus action claiming purposeful and systematic exclusion of black persons from the jury venire from which the jury panel that convicted them…