James Ray Young v. James A. Lynaugh, Interim Director Texas Department of Corrections

GOLDBERG, Circuit Judge:

After many years of seeking relief from an allegedly involuntary guilty plea to a 1963 burglary charge, Petitioner James Ray Young obtained from the district court a writ of habeas corpus. Young claimed to receive not merely ineffective assistance of counsel, but no assistance whatever regarding his plea. Below and on appeal, the state has played procedural football, urging the federal judiciary to punt Young’s claims entirely, or at least to lateral them back to the state courts. We find that the district court properly entertained Young’s petition, but that it must…