Eddie Willie Taylor v. State of Arizona, Frank A. Eyman, Warden

Petitioner was convicted of robbery and sentenced in the Superior Court of Maricopa County, Arizona, to a term of twenty to forty years’ imprisonment. The conviction was affirmed by the Arizona Supreme Court, State v. Taylor, 99 Ariz. 85 , 407 P.2d 59 (1965).

Petitioner then filed this petition for habeas corpus in the federal district court. The district court considered and rejected each of petitioner’s contentions in a written memorandum and ordered the petition dismissed without an evi-dentiary hearing.

We agree with the result reached by the district court (though not in all instances with the reasons given) as to all of petitioner’s contentions but one.

Petitioner alleged that a photograph seized in the course of an illegal search of his apartment was introduced against him at trial. The district court rejected this contention on alternative grounds, holding (1) that petitioner waived his right to raise the point on habeas corpus by failing to raise it at trial or in his state appeal, and (2) that “[e]ven if it was error to admit the photograph * * such error did not materially prejudice the petitioner in his trial.”

As to the first ground, we recently pointed out in…