Joe Richard Bassett v. Ralph H. Tahash, Warden, Minnesota State Prison

This matter is before us on an application by a Minnesota state prisoner to have a certificate of probable cause issued to him by a judge of this court, under 28 U.S.C.A., § 2253, to enable him to take an appeal from the District Court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

The basis on which petitioner sought federal relief was alleged violation of the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, in that he had been sentenced to imprisonment in the Minnesota State Prison, whereas the statutes of the State required that a prisoner of his age be…