Robert Draper v. B. J. Rhay, as Superintendent of Washington State Penitentiary

This “appeal” presents more than the usual number of complications present when a layman attempts to appeal and act as his own attorney.

Appellant filed a complaint on December 15, 1961, alleging that appellee Rhay had deprived him, Robert Draper, a state prisoner serving two consecutive terms for robbery, of his civil rights, “by forcing petitioner to work,” causing “slavery and peonage.” $250,000 in American money is demanded, apparently as damages.

The day previously, the same plaintiff in another matter (No. 1656) had filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which had been denied, upon the ground (a) plaintiff was not then being held in confinement under the judgment and sentence plaintiff was then attacking; (b) he had not exhausted his state remedies. Treating the document filed as a petition for a writ of coram nobis, the petition was denied because not directed to the court which actually sentenced plaintiff. At that hearing plaintiff was present, and acted by choice as his own attorney. A transcript of this proceeding is before us.

On December 15, 1961, plaintiff in addition to this complaint alleging peonage and a motion for a restraining order filed in the…