Commonwealth Townsend v. Burke, Warden.

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Jones,

Prank Townsend, the relator, filed in this Court his original petition for a writ of habeas corpus claiming to be unlawfully restrained of his liberty as a result- of a sentence imposed upon him by the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Philadelphia County on June 5, 1945, without due process of law. Townsend was called to plead to four separate indictments (Nos. 696, 698, 699 and 701, May Sessions, 1945), two of them charging him (and other co-defendants) with burglary and two, with armed robbery. Without benefit of counsel, Townsend entered a plea of guilty to each…