United States ex rel. Tobe v. Bensinger

SPRECHER, Circuit Judge.

This appeal raises the question of whether the district court properly granted a writ of habeas corpus to a state prisoner based on a finding that unauthorized jury communications to the effect that the jury had to keep deliberating and reach a verdict involved such a probability of prejudice that they must be deemed to have resulted in an inherent lack of due process.

I

The defendant, Melvin Tobe, was found guilty in an Illinois state court of *234voluntary manslaughter on February 27, 1970 by a petit jury. At that time, the jury was polled and each juror stated that the…