Robert Ward v. C. C. Peyton, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary

THOMSEN, District Judge.

Petitioner (Ward), was convicted of second degree murder in the Hustings Court for the City of Petersburg in 1960, and was sentenced to a term of twenty years. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the District Court, which was denied after a hearing at which Ward was represented by his present court-appointed counsel. The appeal from that order raises two points: (1) whether Ward’s constitutional rights were infringed by the admission in evidence at his trial of a confession obtained from him when he was not represented by counsel; and (2) whether his…