Joseph S. Salama v. Commonwealth of Virginia

FIELD, Senior Circuit Judge:

On March 24,1978, Joseph J. Salama, was convicted in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, Virginia, of statutory rape and distribution of a controlled drug, and on June 8,1978, he filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in the Eastern District of Virginia. The Commonwealth filed a motion to dismiss upon the ground that the petitioner had failed to exhaust his available state remedies, alleging that he had instituted no state habeas corpus proceedings and that his petition for a direct appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia was still pending. On July 18, 1978,…