United States of America Ex Rel. Herman Rucker v. David N. Myers, Warden, State Correctional Institution, Graterford, Pennsylvania

HASTIE, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal by a Pennsylvania state prisoner, who is under sentence of death for first degree murder, from a United States District Court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus on a claim that the procedure at his trial deprived him of due process of law. The highest state court had rejected this claim. Commonwealth v. Rucker, 1961, 403 Pa. 262, 168 A.2d 732, cert. denied, 368 U.S. 868, 82 S.Ct. 91, 7 L.Ed.2d 65.

During appellant’s trial and before his conviction, the jury was informed, over his objection, that he had previously been convicted of…