Carl Junior Hackathorn v. J. E. (Bill) Decker

BELL, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from a collateral attack by a state prisoner on a death sentence conviction. The original trial was in 1963. Typical of death row cases where the defendant has been long imprisoned, substantial changes have occurred in the law and in some instances, as here, these supervening legal principles are to be retroactively applied and thus redound to the benefit of the prisoner.

Here appellant claims the benefit of two decisions of the Supreme Court which were rendered subsequent to his conviction and which are retrospective in scope. Jackson v. Denno, 1964, 378…