Ralph Jerome Selz v. The State of California, Richard A. McGee Director, Department of Corrections

In 1936 petitioner was convicted on his plea of guilty to a charge of first-degree murder in the Superior Court of San Mateo County, California, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

He instituted this habeas corpus proceeding in 1967 challenging his conviction on constitutional grounds. The dis trict court issued an order to show cause. In responding, the State conceded that several of petitioner’s allegations “would ordinarily warrant * * * an evidentiary hearing”; but asserted that such a hearing was unnecessary because petitioner had deliberately bypassed available state procedure for the vindication of his federal claims; and because petitioner’s factual allegations had been determined against him in written findings entered in a state court proceeding which were presumed to be correct under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d). The district court denied the petition on the latter ground.

Petitioner argues that the district court’s reliance upon the state court findings cannot be sustained because the district court did not have before it the transcript of the state evidentiary hearing upon which these findings were based. We agree. Cases which have considered section 2254(d) have uniformly…