Stewart W. Newsom v. C. C. Peyton, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary

After a state jury trial the petitioner, Stewart W. Newsom, was convicted of murder and sentenced to imprisonment in the Virginia State Penitentiary. State remedies having been fully exhausted, Newsom sought federal habeas corpus. He alleged that he was deprived of his constitutional rights by being denied counsel in a direct appeal which he desired to prosecute in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. The Commonwealth’s answer is that his right to counsel was waived under circumstances which we shall now relate.

Represented by privately retained counsel, Newsom was convicted on April 10,…