People ex rel. Rohrlich v. Follette

Bernard Rohrlich was convicted, after a trial by jury, of robbery in the first degree, grand larceny in the second degree and assault in the second degree. The judgment of conviction was affirmed by the appellate courts of this State and certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Some six years after his conviction, Rohrlich brought on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that the failure of the court to grant his request to waive a jury trial constituted a fatal jurisdictional defect in that it violated his rights under section 2 of article I of the…