Stanley Nick Gonsior v. Walter E. Craven, Warden, California State Prison

Appellant, a prisoner at Folsom, California, is serving terms under a first degree robbery conviction, and under a conviction for being a felon in possession of a concealed weapon in violation of Penal Code § 12021. Appellant’s convictions were affirmed by the California Court of Appeal. He thereafter exhausted his remedies in the State court.

His petition for a writ of habeas corpus, filed in the United States District Court, and contesting only the robbery conviction, was denied following an order to show cause and a return by the State of California. His appeal raises two questions.

1. Whether a comment on the evidence by a State trial judge was error, and whether it raised a federal constitutional issue;

2. Assuming the comments of the trial judge was error and of constitutional dimension, was the error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt under Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18 , 87 S.Ct. 824 , 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).

At the trial on the robbery charge, resulting in the conviction which appellant here contests, the court gave the following instructions:

It appears to this Court from a consideration of the evidence that proof has been made beyond a reasonable doubt that the…