Robert E. Huson v. B. J. Rhay, Superintendent, Washington State Penitentiary

A jury, sitting in the Superior Court of King County, Washington, found Huson guilty of murder in the first degree. It did not, however, fix the penalty at death, as the prosecutor demanded. On Huson’s appeal to the Supreme Court of Washington, his conviction was affirmed. State v. Huson, 1968, 73 Wash.2d 660 , 440 P.2d 192 . We do not repeat here the facts of the case; they are set out in the cited opinion.

Huson’s petition to the District Court for a writ of habeas corpus relies on one ground only — -that the arguments of the prosecutor to the jury were so bad as to amount to a denial of due process. A similar claim was presented to the Supreme Court of Washington, which declined to entertain it because counsel for Huson “knowingly waived objection to the remarks.” ( 440 P.2d at 195 .) The District Court examined the trial transcript and denied the writ, saying:

We affirm. We too have examined the entire trial transcript, and we conclude that this case is controlled by the principles applied by us in Rhay v. Browder, 9 Cir., 1965, 342 F.2d 345 . In that case, also involving a Washington State conviction, there was a failure to object to an instruction, as the state law…