Joe Edward Smith v. The State of Texas

BREWSTER, District Judge.

This case is now in the throes of the piecemeal, post-conviction, collateral litigation of issues which has become the established practice where there is a conviction carrying a substantial penalty. Four and a half years after the date of the offense, the case is before us on appeal from a judgment of a federal district court denying a second petition for writ of habeas corpus after it had already run the gamut of litigation on the merits in the state trial and appellate courts, Smith v. State, 171 Tex.Cr.R. 313, 350 S.W.2d 344 (1961), cert. den. 368 U.S. 883, 82…