Pugh v. Leverette

McGraw, Justice:

William Thomas Pugh was convicted, upon a plea of guilty entered May 5, 1964, of the crime of rape and was sentenced by the Circuit Court of Greenbrier County to life imprisonment. He appeals from a decision of that court, entered February 17,1981, which denied him a writ of habeas corpus by which he sought to have his conviction set aside and to be discharged from custody. Pugh contends that his conviction is void in that the guilty plea upon which it was based was not made voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently.

On March 25, 1964, at approximately 8:15 a.m., Pugh, a black…