Daniel L. Bruno v. Ruth L. Rushen, Director, California Department of Corrections, and Paul J. Morris, Warden, California State Prison at Folsom

I

Daniel L. Bruno was convicted in 1978 of first degree murder and his conviction was affirmed by the California courts. He thereafter petitioned the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for a writ of habeas corpus. He proceeded on two grounds. He charged first that his prosecutor had violated Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 96 S.Ct. 2240, 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976) by unfairly disclosing and using the defendant’s post-arrest silence to suggest to the jury that the entire defense first related at trial must therefore have been fabricated. He relied on several allegations…