William B. Donnell v. E. v. Nash, Warden, Missouri State Penitentiary

Concepts and standards were announced in Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837, and Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770, which neither the state courts nor the lower federal courts had previously been applying in dealing with collateral attacks on state convictions.

Disposition of claims of constitutional violation, which have the capacity to render a state conviction void, cannot now, of course, be properly effected, either by a state court or by a lower federal court, except upon the basis of these announced concepts and standards.

Further,…