Loren Neal Duffield v. C. C. Peyton, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary

This is an appeal from a denial by the district court of a writ of habeas corpus to the petitioner who has been convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. The petition raises non-frivolous questions of constituional dimensions involving unreasonable search and seizure; the admission of a confession alleged to be involuntarily obtained; and the absence of effective counsel at critical stages in the petitioner’s trial. The record shows that the petitioner neither appealed from his conviction, nor has he sought any postconviction relief from the Virginia courts. We think it…