Smith v. Hightower

Mobley, Presiding Justice.

Rudolph 0. Hightower brought a petition for habeas corpus asserting that his sentence of life imprisonment on a murder charge was illegal because the judge’s charge on his trial on the defense of alibi violated his right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Consitution of the United States. The judge hearing the habeas corpus proceeding declared that the sentence was void for the reason asserted, and directed that he be retried on this charge. The respondent warden appealed from this judgment, enumerating as error the finding that the charge on alibi…