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428 F.2d 875

Docket No. 28883.

Pennington v. Stynchcombe

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided June 15, 1970.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1970-06-15

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently March 1977

3 federal appellate ·

2 counsel of record

Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)

Relies on Chapman v. State of California · Baines v. United States · 117 Ga. App. 701 - Pennington v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1970-06-15

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¶1Albert M. Horn, Atlanta, Ga., for petitioner-appellant.

¶2*876Arthur Bolton, Atty. Gen., Lewis Slaton, Dist. Atty., Tony H. Hight, Atlanta, Ga., for respondent-appellee.

¶3Before TUTTLE, DYER and CLARK, Circuit Judges.

¶4PER CURIAM:

¶5This is an appeal from the denial of a petition for habeas corpus following appellant’s conviction in the Superior Court of the State of Georgia on two counts of shooting at another.

¶6Appellant has exhausted his state remedies and the trial court, therefore, had jurisdiction.

¶7Appellant recognizes that the power to grant the writ in such a case as this depends upon his showing that “he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.” 28 U.S.C.A. § 2241. In effect he charges that the trial court committed a large number of errors in the conduct of the trial, some of which were recognized by the Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia when the case was there affirmed, Pennington v. State, 117 Ga.App. 701, 161 S.E.2d 327, and that these errors in sum amounted to a trial which so lacked the standards of fairness as to deprive him of due process as guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment.

¶8Although it is apparent that some of the rulings made by the trial court might subject a conviction to a reversal if they had occurred during the conduct of a trial in the United States District Court, see Baines v. United States, 5 Cir., 426 F.2d 833, dee. May 13, 1970 (which case, however, was strictly limited to its facts), the Supreme Court has not fashioned a rule whereby the United States Courts are to require uniformity with respect to matters of the admission of evidence, conduct of counsel, conflicts of personality between the trial judge and counsel, adequate notice to counsel of the instructions to be given to the jury, etc., in order to meet the standards of due process required by the Federal Constitution. See, also, Chapman v. State of California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705, in which the Supreme Court held that it was permissible for a state to determine for itself what constitutes “harmless” error.

¶9We conclude that the trial court did not err in denying the petition on the ground that it found “no violation of petitioner’s constitutional rights and no denial of fundamental fairness.”

¶10The judgment is affirmed.

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