United States ex rel. McDonald v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

FREEDMAN, Circuit Judge.

The court below denied appellant’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus which attacked his conviction and sentence in a State court on the ground that he was without benefit of counsel. A previous petition in the State courts had failed. Commonwealth ex rel. McDonald v. Run-dle, 202 Pa.Super. 594, 198 A.2d 324 (1964), allocatur refused.

We believe the order of the court below must be vacated and the record remanded to it so that the case may be reconsidered on a firmer factual foundation. If the court below should conclude that appellant’s federal constitutional rights…