Nathan Johnson v. E. H. Tucker, Warden, West Virginia Penitentiary

This is an appeal from an order dismissing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus by a prisoner serving a life sentence imposed by a state court of West Virginia. The questions raised by the petition are the same as those passed upon by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in State ex rel. Nathan Johnson v. Skeen, 140 W.Va. 896, 87 S.E.2d 521, certiorari denied 351 U.S. 956, 76 S.Ct. 854, 100 L.Ed. 1478, where the facts are fully stated. We are bound by the interpretation placed by the courts of West Virginia upon the statutes of that state; and in the light of the interpretation…