Frank Daniel Williams v. Robert F. Zahradnick and the Attorney General of the State of Virginia

MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge:

I

On June 30,1975, an armed man attempted unsuccessfully to perpetrate a robbery on Beverly D. Bell, Sr., a Safeway Store security guard in Henrico County, Virginia. The security guard was wounded in the encounter. Frank Daniel Williams, the appellant, was arrested for and convicted of attempted robbery 1 and of malicious wounding 2 by the Circuit Court of Henrico County. He received two concurrent 20-year sentences.

After an unsuccessful appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court, appellant filed, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, a…