James v. Miller v. B. J. Rhay, Superintendent, Washington State Penitentiary

James V. Miller, a state prisoner, has taken this appeal from a district court order denying his petition for writ of habeas corpus without an evidentiary hearing. We affirm.

In 1962 appellant was tried and convicted of arson, first-degree murder, and attempted murder in the Superior Court of the State of Washington for King County. Appellant’s sole contention in this federal habeas action is that the state trial court improperly admitted into evidence an allegedly coerced confession given by appellant following interrogation by Seattle police.

The state superior court held a pretrial evidentiary hearing on the volun-tariness of Miller’s confession, found the relevant facts, concluded that the confession was voluntary, and admitted it in evidence. Appellant did not appeal his conviction to the state supreme court. Some years later he filed a petition for habeas corpus in that court raising the issues presented here. The petition was denied on the merits.

In this proceeding the federal district court reviewed the records of the state court proceedings, listened to tape recordings of the police interrogation, and concluded that “the State courts have given a full, fair and…