Frank Antonio Pavao v. Harold J. Cardwell, Warden, Arizona State Prison

Appellant, a State prisoner, was convicted in 1974 of assault with a deadly weapon. There was strong evidence that he was a passenger in a car driven by a man named Oseo, that he became angered by another motorist, and drew a gun and shot him from the ear window. The victim lived despite a gunshot wound that penetrated to within a fraction of an inch from his heart. Appellant (who had previously been convicted elsewhere of assault with a deadly weapon) was sentenced to from 20 to 25 years. His petition to the district court for a writ of habeas corpus raised a variety of claims, several of which have been waived on appeal. The three issues raised on the appeal are that he was improperly denied an evidentiary hearing on his claim that Oseo perjured himself, that a statement made by him at the time of his arrest was improperly admitted into evidence, and that portions of the presentence report were not disclosed to him.

The claim of perjury was first made to the Arizona Court of Appeals in a collateral attack under Rule 32 of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure, after appellant’s conviction had been affirmed in Arizona v. Pavao, 23 Ariz.App. 65 , 530 P.2d 911 (1976). On the…