Kirby v. State

This is a delayed appeal granted by the judge hearing a Post Conviction Procedure Act case on the basis of a letter seeking an appeal, written by the convicted man soon after the original trial, but not then acted upon. The appeal is from judgments and sentences for armed robbery and we are urged to grant relief because of deprivation of the constitutional right to a speedy trial and the imposition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Kirby, the appellant, was sentenced in November 1948 by a federal court in the District of Columbia to nine years’ imprisonment in Atlanta. On August 6, 1948, in…