Eddie W. Pembrook v. Lawrence E. Wilson, Warden, California State Prison, San Quentin, California

On March 2,1966, Eddie W. Pembrook, in California penal custody following his 1960 conviction for manslaughter, applied to the district court for a writ of habeas corpus and sought leave to proceed in that court in forma pauperis. The district court denied the motion to proceed in forma pauperis and also denied a similar petition for rehearing of that motion. Pembrook appeals.

The district court denied Pembrook’s original motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis on the ground that the only constitutional rights asserted by Pembrook were those having to do with police interrogation, as announced in Escobedo v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 , 84 S.Ct. 1758 , 12 L.Ed.2d 977 , decided in 1964, and that those principles could not be applied retroactively.

The Supreme Court has held that the constitutional rights articulated in Escobedo may not be applied retroactively by federal courts in testing the constitutional validity of state court convictions. See Johnson v. State of New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 732 , 86 S.Ct. 1772 ; Davis v. State of North Carolina, 384 U.S. 737 , 86 S.Ct. 1761 , 16 L.Ed.2d 895 . Therefore, if Pembrook sought habeas corpus relief solely on the basis of…