John Patler v. A. E. Slayton, Jr., Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary

CRAVEN, Circuit Judge:

John Patler was found guilty by a jury in the Circuit Court of Arlington County, Virginia, of the first degree murder of George Lincoln Rockwell, the head of the American Nazi Party. Pat-ler was apprehended about one-half hour after the homicide less than a mile from the scene of the crime. The complex, “largely circumstantial” web of evidence upon which the jury verdict rested is set out in the opinion of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, which held that the verdict was based on sufficient evidence. Patler v. Commonwealth, 211 Va. 448, 452-456, 177 S.E.2d 618,…