Carnley v. Cochran

While I join the opinion of the Court and the separate opinion of Mr. Justice Black, I wish to add a word to the reasons Mr. Justice Brennan and I gave in McNeal v. Culver, 365 U. S. 109, 117-119, for overruling Betts v. Brady, 316 U. S. 455.

Petitioner, an admitted illiterate,* was forced to try his case to a six-man jury. There is no record of the proceedings at which the jury was impaneled. There is nothing to show that petitioner was told of his right to challenge individual veniremen, or the panel as a whole, or that he challenged anyone for cause or exercised any of the six peremptory…