Bronson Howard Knight v. Gene Johnson, the Honorable J. Marshall Coleman, Attorney General of Commonwealth

BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge:

The warden of a Virginia prison appeals from an order granting a writ of habeas corpus to Bronson Howard Knight, who had been convicted of burglary and larceny. The district court held that the procedure followed by the state court invalidated Knight’s pleas of guilty and denied him the right to effective counsel. Knight v. Johnson, 529 F.Supp. 1309 (E.D.Va.1982). We reverse because we conclude that the state court’s procedure neither convicted Knight without due process of law nor infringed his right to effective counsel.

I

Knight desired a bench trial, because a…