This is an appeal from an order dismissing the appellant’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
The appellant Darrel G. Hafen was convicted of theft by deception and was sentenced to a term of one to fifteen years in the Utah State Prison. He appealed his conviction to this Court which was upheld in State v. Hafen, Utah,
He then filed the present petition alleging that his attorney at the trial had failed to honor his request to challenge a juror who appellant knew. Appellant also claims that his trial attorney failed to raise that issue on appeal although appellant had so requested. As a result of the above, he claims he was denied effective assistance of counsel in violation of his rights as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
He appeared before the court below pro se following which appearance the lower court dismissed his petition on the ground that he had waived any right to raise the issue of the failure of his attorney to challenge the juror. The court determined that. it would not grant an evidentiary hearing on that issue since it could have been raised at appellant’s trial or on appeal. He appeals asserting that the lower court erred in that denial.
This Court in Bryant v. Turner,
Waiver was found in Schad v. Turner, supra, where the petitioner in a petition for habeas corpus attempted to raise as an issue that the District Attorney had exceeded the bounds of propriety in his cross-examination of the petitioner at the trial. We there observed that since that was an issue which could have been raised on the petitioner’s former appeal of his case to this Court, we would not take cognizance of it on a later petition for habeas corpus.
The above authorities are applicable to the instant case. If the appellant’s counsel did in fact fail to honor his request to challenge the juror, the appellant had adequate opportunity at the trial to have made complaint to the court. Furthermore, following his conviction that issue could have been raised by him in this Court in his appeal which pended in this Court for many months. In view of his silence, the trial judge correctly ruled that he had waived any claim of error in this regard. There are not here any of the “unusual circumstances” referred to in Bryant v. Turner, supra.
The judgment below is affirmed.
