Opinion
September 9, 1958.
November 14, 1958.
Criminal law — Practice — Habeas corpus — Repetitious petition.
In this case, in which relator contended that he had been denied due process of law because, as he alleged, he had been held incommunicado for a period of about three weeks and had been forced by brutality, physical and psychological torture to sign a false confession, it was Held that the petition for a writ of habeas corpus was properly dismissed as repetitious of a prior petition upon which a hearing had been held and from the disposition of which no appeal had been taken.
Before RHODES, P.J., HIRT, WRIGHT, WOODSIDE, ERVIN, and WATKINS, JJ. (GUNTHER, J., absent).
Appeal, No. 345, Oct. T., 1958, from order of Court of Common Pleas No. 1 of Philadelphia County, Dec. T., 1957, No. 1947, in case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ex rel. Jerome Sharp v. William J. Banmiller, Warden. Order affirmed.
Habeas corpus.
Order entered dismissing petition, opinion by GRIFFITHS, J. Relator appealed.
Paul N. Gardner, for appellant.
Charles L. Durham, Assistant District Attorney, with him Juanita Kidd Stout, Assistant District Attorney, James N. Lafferty, First Assistant District Attorney, and Victor H. Blanc, District Attorney, for appellee.
Argued September 9, 1958.
Petitioner, Jerome Sharp, has appealed from the denial, without hearing on the merits, of his repetitious petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
On September 28, 1944, petitioner pleaded guilty to bills of indictment charging burglary and receiving stolen goods. He was sentenced to a term of not less than five years and not more than ten years in the Eastern State Penitentiary. In the interim the minimum sentence was reduced and petitioner was paroled and twice recommitted as a parole violator because of subsequent convictions in the states of Illinois and Florida.
The present petition for writ of habeas corpus filed on January 23, 1958, in the Court of Common Pleas No. 1 of Philadelphia County, asserts that petitioner was denied due process of law because he was held incommunicado from May 12, 1944, to June 3, 1944, and was forced by "brutality, physical and psychological torture" to sign a false confession. The identical assertions were made in a previous petition for writ of habeas corpus which was dismissed October 9, 1954, by Judge SLOANE of the Court of Common Pleas No. 7 of Philadelphia County, after a full hearing on the merits, and from which dismissal no appeal was taken by this relator.
See per curiam opinion filed this day in Com. ex rel. Huber v. Myers, 187 Pa. Super. 553, 146 A.2d 66.
The present petition was properly dismissed as repetitious of a prior petition upon which a hearing had been held, and from which disposition no appeal was taken. Com. ex rel. Baerchus v. Burke, 172 Pa. Super. 400, 403, 94 A.2d 87; Com. ex rel. Hendrickson v. Hendrick, 181 Pa. Super. 45, 48, 122 A.2d 88.
The order is affirmed.