Commonwealth v. Sampson

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Jones,

On September 30, 1953, appellant entered a plea of guilty to murder generally. Found guilty of first degree murder by a court en banc, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. There was no motion for a new trial and no appeal from the original sentence. Seven *561years later appellant filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus which was denied on the narrow ground that habeas corpus cannot be employed as a substitute for an appeal. E.g., Com,, ex rel. Johnson v. Myers, 402 Pa. 451, 167 A. 2d 295 (1961), cert. denied, 366 U.S. 921 (1961). On appeal we similarly affirmed…