Jack Rheuark v. Wade, State of Texas and Warden of Leavenworth Federal Prison

Appellant Rheuark here claims the district court wrongly dismissed his habeas corpus petition for failure to exhaust available state remedies. We vacate and remand for a determination of whether the delay in the processing of petitioner’s direct appeal of his state conviction has been unjustifiable, relieving Rheuark from the exhaustion requirement of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b).

A Texas grand jury indicted appellant for armed robbery in 1966. The state brought him to trial in November 1974; a jury found him guilty the following January, and he received sentence on February 10, 1975. He filed a notice…