James Frasia May v. C. C. Peyton, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary

Petitioner, who was denied habeas corpus relief by the district court, was convicted of robbery, on February 6, 1958, in the Circuit Court of Albemarle County, Virginia, which tried him without a jury. He was sentenced to ten years in the Virginia State Penitentiary. In 1965, petitioner’s post-conviction attack on that judgment was successful and he was granted a new trial. Petitioner was retried in 1965, and again convicted — -this time by a jury, which sentenced him to twenty years in the Virginia State Penitentiary.

In oral argument, counsel for the Commonwealth admitted that petitioner had…