Opinion
No. 02C01-9509-CC-00259.
May 20, 1996.
Appeal from Lauderdale County, Hon. Joseph H. Walker, Judge, (Habeas Corpus).
For the Appellant:
Marvin Anthony Mathews, Cold Creek Correctional Facility, (Pro Se).
For the Appellee:
Charles W. Burson, Attorney General and Reporter, Charlotte H. Rappuhn, Assistant Attorney General, Lisa A. Naylor, Legal Assistant.
AFFIRMED PURSUANT TO RULE 20.
ORDER
Appellant, Marvin Anthony Mathews, appeals the summary dismissal of his petition for writ of habeas corpus by the Lauderdale County Circuit Court. Appellant is serving a term of life imprisonment after being convicted in Shelby County of grand larceny and adjudicated a habitual offender in December of 1988. Acting pro se, appellant filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus on June 21, 1993. His petition asserts that the Habitual Offender Act under which he was sentenced in 1988 is unconstitutional and thereby the convicting court was without jurisdiction to order his confinement. On August 3, 1995, the trial court summarily dismissed appellant's petition without an evidentiary hearing, finding that the alleged statute was constitutional.
The Habitual Offender Act, Tennessee Code Annotated sections 39-1-801 to -807 (repealed 1989), has repeatedly been upheld as constitutional by this Court. See, e.g., State v. Kilby, 763 S.W.2d 389, 393 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1988); State v. Jackson, 697 S.W.2d 366, 373 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1985); State v. Wilson, 687 S.W.2d 720, 726 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1984), cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1030, 105 S.Ct. 3508, 87 L.Ed.2d 638 (1985); State v. Freeman, 669 S.W.2d 688, 692 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1983). Therefore, appellant is entitled to no relief.
Finding that no error of law was committed by the trial court, we affirm the judgment pursuant to Rule 20 of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.
______________________________________ William M. Barker, Judge
______________________________________ Gary R. Wade, Judge
______________________________________ Jerry L. Smith, Judge