Roberts v. Warden of Maryland House of Correction

Lloyd Ransom Roberts was tried and convicted on June 1, 1956, before Magistrate H. Reese Shoemaker, Jr., of Frederick County, on a charge of assault and battery. His petition for a writ of habeas corpus was submitted to Judge Stedman Prescott in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County and was denied by him.

Petitioner alleges that he was not asked to waive his right to a jury trial and did not freely elect to be tried before the trial magistrate. Judge Prescott, in passing upon the application, had before him the original commitment order which is in absolute contradiction of this claim.…