United States of America Ex Rel. Edward Mitchell, Relator-Appellee v. Hon. Harold Follette, Warden, Green Haven Prison, Stormville, New York

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge:

Edward Mitchell, represented by assigned counsel, was convicted in 1952 after a jury trial in a New York court of assault in the first and second degrees, New York Penal Law, McKinney’s Con-soLLaws, c. 40, §§ 240, 242. The conviction rested on proof that he had struck a woman about the head and the body with an ice pick, inflicting a head wound which extended from the posterior portion of the skull through the mouth, and body wounds which punctured the chest and pierced a kidney. Since he had previously been convicted of assaulting another woman with an axe, he was…