Clyde Pannell v. W. K. Cunningham, Jr., Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary

Upon a plea of guilty to the charge of rape, Clyde Panned was sentenced on November 20, 1956, to twenty-five years in the Virginia State Penitentiary. After unsuccessful attempts at collateral relief in the state courts, he petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He urged three grounds to establish the invalidity of his sentence: first, the offense was committed in Tennessee and, therefore, the Virginia court lacked jurisdiction over it; second, he was insane at the time of trial; and third, he was denied the effective…