Bethune v. State

In 1982, Tony Curtis Bethune was convicted of sodomy in the first degree and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole as a habitual offender. That conviction was affirmed without opinion by this Court. Bethune v. State, 434 So.2d 869 (1983).

After the Alabama Supreme Court denied Bethune's petition for writ of certiorari, Bethune sought relief through the writ of error coram nobis in the state courts. After that remedy was denied, he filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus. On July 7, 1988, a United States magistrate ruled that the filing of the "no-merit" brief by…