John P. Mitchell v. Edwin B. Swope, Warden, United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz, California

The appellant filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the court below asserting that he is confined in a United States penitentiary under color of a commitment from the Judge Advocate General of the Army; that this commitment was pursuant to a conviction by General Court Martial for a violation of the Articles of War, 10 U.S.C.A. § 1472 et seq., and that he is sentenced to be confined at hard labor for the term of his natural life; that he is unlawfully restrained of his liberty in that the General Court Martial that tried him was without jurisdiction to proceed in his case because the members of the court were not sworn; and that he was denied due process of law and his rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution in that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel at his trial.

No return, answer or traverse was filed in response to the petition but the trial court, proceeding in a manner similar to that suggested in Brown v. Allen, 344 U.S. 433 , 503, 504, 73 S.Ct. 397 , 97 L.Ed. 469 , called for the record of the Court Martial trial and received and examined (a) the record of the trial before the General Court Martial, and (b), the record of the…