[855] 339 U.S. 660, 665 (1950).
[856] 342 U.S. 55 (1951).
[857] Ibid. 64.
[858] 335 U.S. 437, 440-441 (1948).
[859] Rice v. Olson, 324 U.S. 786, 788-789 (1945).
[860] Wade v. Mayo, 334 U.S. 672, 683-684 (1948); De Meerleer v. Michigan, 329 U.S. 663, 664-665 (1947); Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455, 472 (1942); Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 51-52, 71 (1932).
[861] Townsend v. Burke, 334 U.S. 736, 739-741 (1948); De Meerleer v. Michigan, 329 U.S. 663, 665 (1947); Smith v. O'Grady, 312 U.S. 329, 332-333 (1941).
[862] Rice v. Olson, 324 U.S. 786, 789-791 (1945).
[863] Gibbs v. Burke, 337 U.S. 773, 780-781 (1949). Devotion to the Fair Trial doctrine has also created another problem for the Court, that of a burdensome increase in the volume of its business. Inasmuch as accurate appraisal of the effect of absence of counsel on the validity of a State criminal proceeding has been rendered more difficult by the vagueness of that doctrine as well as by the Court's acknowledged variation in the application thereof, innumerable State prisoners have been tempted to seek judicial reconsideration of their convictions. To reduce the number of such cases which it is obliged to examine on their merits, the Court had been compelled to have recourse to certain protective rules. Thus, when a State prisoner seeks to attack the validity of his conviction by way of habeas corpus proceedings begun in a lower federal court, application for that writ will be entertained only after all State remedies available, including all appellate remedies in State courts and in the Supreme Court by appeal or writ of certiorari, have been exhausted. This rule, however, will not be applied when no adequate State remedy is in fact available. Also when a prisoner's petition for release on the grounds of the unconstitutionally of his conviction has been rejected by a State court, a petition for certiorari addressed to the United States Supreme Court will be denied whenever it appears that the prisoner had not invoked the appropriate State remedy. Or stated otherwise, where the State court's conviction or refusal to grant writs of habeas corpus to those under State sentences may fairly be attributed to a rule of local procedure and is not exclusively founded on the denial of a federal claim, such as, right to counsel, the Supreme Court will refuse to intervene. As in the case of other legal rules, Justices of the Supreme Court have often found themselves in disagreement as to the manner of applying these aforementioned principles; and vigorous dissents arising out of this very issue were recorded in the cases of Marino v. Ragen, 332 U.S. 561 (1947); Wade v. Mayo, 334 U.S. 672 (1948); and Uveges v. Pennsylvania, 335 U.S. 437 (1948). Justice Frankfurter has frequently, albeit unsuccessfully contended, that "intervention by * * * [the Supreme Court] in the criminal process of States * * * should not be indulged in unless no reasonable doubt is left that a State denies, or has refused to exercise, means of correcting a claimed infraction of the United States Constitution. * * * After all, [it should be borne in mind that] this is the Nation's ultimate judicial tribunal, not a super-legal-aid bureau."
[864] 176 U.S. 581 (1900).