Brady Pamplin, Sheriff of Falls County, Texas and the State of Texas v. Alexander Mason

WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

The petitioner in this habeas proceeding was convicted in the Texas courts of a misdemeanor, 1 aggravated assault upon a local peace officer. The question the case presents is whether the state court’s denial of a hearing on the defendant’s motion for change of venue, to avoid jury prejudice, violated his constitutional right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court granted petitioner’s writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 and remanded the cause for a new trial in the Texas courts. We affirm.

In August 1963 Alexander Mason, a Negro…