Hampson

This is an appeal from an order dismissing a petition for release in a habeas corpus proceeding. Appellant is serving a life sentence in the Washington state penitentiary upon conviction of murder in the first degree of a young woman, a former friend of appellant, .by the superior court of Pierce County of that state. The petition was dismissed by District Judge Schwellenbach upon the ground “that the petition presents no question of which this court might acquire jurisdiction.” We do not agree. For reasons later stated, we think the petition presented to the district court for its consideration a justiciable question of claimed violation of right under the Fourteenth and Fifth Amendments of the Federal Constitution.

The petition shows that on February 21, 1940, the young woman was found still alive, with her skull crushed by a blow with some weapon. On that day appellant was arrested without warrant and held incommunicado without charge or indictment until the fifth day of March, during all of which time he protested his innocence. No incriminating statements were made during this period, and it is not claimed that this illegal incarceration in any way affected the subsequent…