Opinion
25937.
SUBMITTED JULY 14, 1970.
DECIDED SEPTEMBER 10, 1970.
Habeas corpus. Tattnall Superior Court. Before Judge Caswell.
Michael Musgrove, pro se. Arthur K. Bolton, Attorney General, Harold N. Hill, Jr., Executive Assistant Attorney General, Marion O. Gordon, William R. Childers, Jr., Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee.
The trial court properly denied the writ of habeas corpus and remanded the petitioner to the custody of the respondent.
SUBMITTED JULY 14, 1970 — DECIDED SEPTEMBER 10, 1970.
This appeal is from a judgment remanding the petitioner to the custody of the warden following a hearing on a petition for the writ of habeas corpus.
Michael Musgrove filed his petition in the Superior Court of Tattnall County against the respondent S. Lamont Smith, Warden of the Georgia State Prison. It alleged in essence that he was being detained illegally by virtue of a life sentence for murder which was predicated upon an indictment returned by an illegally constituted grand jury, contrary to the decision of Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 545 ( 87 S.C. 643, 17 L.Ed.2d 599).
Upon the hearing the evidence showed that the petitioner was a white man, and did not show any violation of his rights by systematic exclusion of Negroes from the grand jury which indicted him, as contended.
Therefore, the Whitus case, supra, is not applicable.
Rather, holdings of this court are decisive: "Under the decisions in Massey v. Smith, 224 Ga. 721 ( 164 S.E.2d 786), and Clark v. Smith, 224 Ga. 766 ( 164 S.E.2d 790), the prisoner has no standing to complain that the grand and traverse juries may have been so composed as to systematically exclude Negroes since he is a white man and makes no showing as to how he was harmed or prejudiced by the exclusion of Negroes." Neal v. Smith, 226 Ga. 96 (2) ( 172 S.E.2d 684).
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.