Wilbur Thomas Lawrence v. C. C. Peyton, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary

J. SPENCER BELL, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from the district court’s refusal to issue a writ of habeas corpus after a plenary hearing.

On June 25, 1958, before the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, the petitioner was convicted and sentenced in a recidivist proceeding. He was not repre sented at that hearing by counsel. On July 26, 1961, the petitioner completed serving his underlying criminal sentences. On February 19, 1962, the Supreme Court held in Chewning v. Cunningham, 368 U.S. 443, 82 S.Ct. 498, 7 L.Ed.2d 442, that the trial of Chewning, a Virginia recidivist, without counsel…