Allen Beverley Lembke v. Harold v. Field, Superintendent, California Men's Colony

Allen Beverley Lembke, appellant herein, filed a petition in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Northern Division (now Eastern District of California), for a writ of habeas corpus. The district court issued an order to show cause and upon the return thereof and a traverse of certain of its allegations by appellant, the district court denied appellant’s petition for the writ. A timely appeal was filed to this court which has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

The indictment found against appellant on February 10,1944, was in four counts: In Count One he was charged with the crime of murder; in Counts Two, Three and Four he was charged with violations of sections of the Penal Code describing respectively the crimes of rape (section 261), sodomy (section 286), and lewd and lascivious conduct (section 288). After a trial before the court, a jury having been waived, the clerk’s records of March 23, 1944, show the following entry:

On March 27, 1944, appellant was sentenced to “be punished by imprisonment in the state prison of the state of California for life.” No appeal was taken from this conviction and sentence. Appellant, however, later…