Hazel v. State

Hazel, the appellant, was tried on a charge of rape by the Criminal Court of Baltimore, three judges sitting without a jury. He was found sane and guilty as charged, and sentenced to death. In the appeal to this Court sanity was not an issue, the sole question argued and decided being the sufficiency of the evidence to support the finding of guilt. The judgment was affirmed in Hazel v. State, 221 Md. 464.

After the affirmance, and within weeks of the day Hazel was to have been executed, the court-appointed lawyers who had represented him at his trial filed on his behalf a petition for relief…