Hillery

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Respondent filed three motions: to dismiss, for reconsideration of my order of March 27, 1980, and for a stay of responses to interrogatories. A brief examination of the procedural history of the case aids in placing the current motions in perspective.

Petitioner, a state prison inmate, filed his application for a writ of habeas corpus in 1978, challenging the constitutionality of his 1962 Kings County, California, Superior Court conviction for murder. He alleges that he is Black and that he was denied equal protection of the laws because Blacks were systematically excluded from the grand jury which indicted him. On January 31,1979, the Honorable Thomas J. MacBride determined that petitioner had established a prima facie case of discriminatory selection and directed the respondent to show cause why a writ of habeas corpus should not issue on that ground.

In his return to the Order to Show Cause, respondent argued that because the state had provided petitioner with an opportunity to fully and fairly litigate his claim of racial discrimination in a state court, federal habeas review was not available. Alternately he argued that if such review was appropriate,…