Robert Edward William Cowling v. Warden Walter E. Craven and the People of the State of California

The district court granted Robert E. W. Cowling, a prisoner of the State of California, a writ of habeas corpus. The warden appealed. In an unreported order we remanded the cause to the district court to make findings of fact and conclusions of law on two issues, and then to retransfer the cause to this court.

Instead, the district court granted the warden’s motion to dismiss the cause. This was done on the ground that Cowling may be able to get his state appeal reinstated because he was denied counsel on appeal and, in the reinstated appeal, he may obtain a favorable ruling on a search and seizure question in view of a substantial recent change in California law on the subject. Cowling appeals from the order of dismissal and so now appears here as appellant rather than in his original role as appellee.

We have considered all of Cowling’s arguments on appeal and some of them are not without difficulty. However, in view of the unusual circumstances of this case we are unwilling to disturb the district court order. It may offer Cowling a more substantial prospect of release or retrial, than to go forward with the original appeal.

It perhaps would have been better had the district…