Robert J. Sheehan v. Lawrence L. Delmore, Jr., Superintendent of the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla, Washington

This appeal is from an order denying appellant’s application for a writ of habeas corpus. The court below found that the State of Washington had denied him no right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

Appellant was convicted of robbery on April 29, 1952, after he had waived his right to counsel and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to not less than five years nor more than twenty years imprisonment. The portion of the sentence relating to a minimum term was contrary to Washington law. On December 10, 1952 appellant was resentenced as required by statute to a maximum term of twenty years with no minimum term specified.

The contention on appeal is that appellant was denied due process at the time of his resentencing when the court refused to permit him to withdraw his plea of guilty and allegedly deprived him of his right to counsel by denying his motion for a forty-eight hour postponement for the purpose of obtaining counsel.

It is clear that under Washington law appellant’s original sentence was merely erroneous and not void as he contends. In re Siipola v. Cranor, 38 Wash.2d 848 , 232 P.2d 920 . Consequently the motion to withdraw the plea of guilty was…