Best v. Warden of Maryland Penitentiary

The applicant, James Alton Best, was found guilty of escape and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary, to begin at the expiration of the fifteen year sentence he was then serving for second degree murder. The escape occurred when the applicant, who had been taken to the University Hospital for medical treatment, walked off after his guard went to make a phone call to arrange for transportation back to the penitentiary.

The applicant’s original petition for post conviction relief alleged, first, that he did not commit the crime of escape, as defined in Code (1957), Art. 27,…