Booker T. Hillery, Jr. v. Reginald Pulley, Warden

In this matter, petitioner Booker T. Hillery, Jr., successfully challenged the constitutionality of his 1962 Kings County Superior Court judgment of conviction and sentence for the stabbing murder of a fifteen-year-old girl, in violation of California Penal Code § 187, by applying for a writ of habeas corpus in the District Court. The District Court granted the writ upon concluding that petitioner’s conviction resulted from a denial of equal protection because black persons had been systematically excluded from selection to the Kings County grand jury for the years preceding his 1962…