Wilburn Jerome Gerberding v. Harold R. Swenson, Warden

GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

The appellee Wilburn Jerome Gerberding was granted a writ of habeas corpus by the District Court of the Western District of Missouri relieving him of a life sentence imposed under the Missouri Second Offender Act. 1 The State has appealed, claiming the sentence under attack is valid. The question presented for review is whether a conviction obtained in a one-stage penalty enhancement trial is constitutionally infirm, where one of three prior felony convictions admitted on the enhancement issue was retroactively invalid for lack of counsel, and where only one prior felony…