Edward J. Parker v. Howard M. Comstock, Superintendent, Sierra Conservation Center

Edward J. Parker, in California penal custody under a fourteen-year sentence resulting from his 1962 conviction on four counts of forgery, applied for a writ of habeas corpus to set aside that conviction. He sought such relief on three grounds: (1) he was denied the assistance of counsel at his jury trial; (2) the prosecutor improperly commented at the trial on Parker’s failure to tes tify; and (3) the prosecutor promised his codefendant a lighter sentence if he would testify against Parker. The district court denied the application.

In its denial order the court pointed out that, in 1965, Parker was convicted of burglary by a California state court following a plea of guilty, and that he is not to commence service of the fifteen-year term imposed following that conviction until completion of the forgery sentence he is now serving. In holding that one who is challenging only the first of two consecutive sentences is not entitled to habeas relief regardless of the merits of his application, the district court relied ^on McNally v. Hill, 293 U.S. 131 , 55 S.Ct. 24 , 79 L.Ed. 238 . Parker appeals.

McNally v. Hill involved an application for habeas relief directed only to the second…