John H. Williams, Jr. v. Kevin Myers, Warden

The petitioner was convicted in 1988 of felony murder and is currently serving a life sentence. After exhausting his direct and post-conviction appeals, the petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which the trial court subsequently denied. The petitioner now appeals the denial of his petition, arguing that the convicting court lacked subject matter jurisdiction due to a defective indictment and that the statute governing first degree murder at the time of his trial was unconstitutionally vague. He contends that for these reasons, his conviction is illegal. Having reviewed the petitioner's claims, we conclude that the original indictment upon which the petitioner's conviction was based was not defective and thus that the convicting court was not without subject matter jurisdiction. We further conclude that the statute governing the petitioner's conviction is not unconstitutionally vague. We therefore affirm the judgment of the trial court in denying the petition for a writ of habeas corpus.