Lonnie Smith, Jr. v. W. J. Estelle, Director, Texas Department of Corrections

Appellant, Lonnie Smith, Jr., was convicted of rape in a Texas court and sentenced to serve 60 years. Having exhausted his state post-conviction remedies, he petitioned the court below for a writ of habeas corpus. The writ was denied. In this appeal, Smith argues three separate grounds for reversal: (1) the in-court identification of Smith by the rape victim was improperly tainted by a pretrial photographic identification; (2) he was denied counsel during his pretrial “examining trial;” and, (3) the grand jury which indicted Smith was illegally constituted because it contained only…