Hankerson v. North Carolina

The issue in this case is whether the North Carolina Supreme Court correctly declined to give retroactive application to this Court’s decision in Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U. S. 684 (1975).

I

Petitioner Hankerson was convicted after a jury trial of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20-25 years in prison. It was conceded at his trial that petitioner killed a man named Gregory Ashe by shooting him through the heart with a pistol at 11 at night on September 29, 1974. The issue at trial was whether petitioner acted in self-defense. The relevant evidence is described below.

Ashe and two friends,…