United States of America Ex Rel. Jerome Rosenberg v. Vincent R. Mancusi, as Warden of Attica State Prison, Attica, n.y.,respondent-appellee

WATERMAN, Circuit Judge:

Petitioner-appellant Rosenberg and two codefendants, Anthony Portelli and Anthony Dellernia, were tried before a jury in the New York Supreme Court, Kings County, on two counts of murder in the first degree for the killing, on May 18, 1962, of two policemen who interrupted the robbery of a tobacco store in Brooklyn. Rosenberg and Portelli were convicted and sentenced to death. The sentences were subsequently commuted to life imprisonment, the convictions were affirmed on appeal,1 and cer-tiorari was denied by the U. S. Supreme Court.2 Dellernia was granted a mistrial…