United States Ex Rel. Knight v. Fay

WEINFELD, District Judge.

The petitioner, now confined to Green Haven State Prison, Stormville, New York, under a sentence of ten to twenty years imposed pursuant to a judgment of conviction of manslaughter entered upon a jury verdict, seeks his release on a writ of habeas corpus. He assails the judgment of conviction as void for violation of his federally protected right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. The nub of his claim is that upon his trial he was foreclosed by Court rulings from presenting evidence vital to his plea of insanity and thereby deprived of his defense and a…