Osborne

In the District Court of the United States for the District of New Mexico (hereafter called the New Mexico court), appellant, George Guy Osborne, was indicted, tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice while the agent was engaged in the performance of his official duties. 1 An appeal from the judgment of conviction was, on appellant’s own motion, dismissed. 2 Appellant was committed to the custody of the Attorney General, 3 who . designated as the place of his confinement the United States penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, from which place, by order of the Attorney General, he was subsequently transferred to the United States penitentiary at 1 Alcatraz, California.

While there confined and serving his sentence, appellant petitioned the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of California (hereafter called the California court) for a writ of habeas corpus. The California court, instead of issuing the writ, ordered appellee, James A. Johnston, warden of the penitentiary at Alcatraz, to show cause why the writ should not issue. To that order appellee…