Opinion
Submitted November 19, 1959.
December 30, 1959.
Criminal procedure — Habeas corpus — Complaints of pre-trial police misconduct — Errors in evidence — Trial delay.
In this habeas corpus proceeding in which it appeared that petitioner was a convicted first degree murderer who was serving a life term of imprisonment, and who claimed that his home was searched by police without a search warrant, that evidence was erroneously introduced at his trial, that he was arrested without a warrant and not given a preliminary hearing until three days after his arrest and that the delay of a year between the time of indictment and trial violated his right to a speedy trial under Article I, § 9 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, it was Held that none of the matters complained of constituted any ground for issuing a writ of habeas corpus.
Before JONES, C. J., BELL, MUSMANNO, JONES, COHEN, BOK and McBRIDE, JJ.
Appeal, No. 355, Jan. T., 1959, from order of Court of Common Pleas No. 4 of Philadelphia County, June T., 1959, No. 2720, in case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ex rel. Anthony Romano v. William J. Banmiller, Warden. Order affirmed.
Same case in court below: 19 Pa. D. C.2d 198.
Habeas corpus.
Order entered dismissing petition, opinion by KELLEY, J. Relator appealed.
Anthony Romano, appellant, in propria persona.
Patrick F. Casey and Domenick Vitullo, Assistant District Attorneys, Paul M. Chalfin, First Assistant District Attorney, and Victor H. Blanc, District Attorney, for appellee.
The relator was tried for a felonious homicide committed in the course of a robbery and was convicted by the jury of murder in the first degree with the penalty fixed at life imprisonment. His motion for a new trial was refused and judgment of sentence was entered on the verdict. On appeal to this court, the judgment of sentence was affirmed ( Commonwealth v. Romano, 392 Pa. 632, 141 A.2d 597), and the relator was duly committed to the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, where he is now confined, for the service of his sentence.
On the relator's petition for a writ of habeas corpus, a rule was granted by the court below on July 31, 1959, calling upon the respondent warden to show cause why the writ should not issue. After a hearing on the petition, the rule was discharged and the petition dismissed by the order which the relator has appealed to this court. The opinion of Judge KELLEY for the court below, reported in 19 Pa. D. C.2d 198, whereon we affirm, amply supports the lower court's action.
Order affirmed.