Walker v. Lockhart

MEMORANDUM OPINION

HENRY WOODS, District Judge.

I. HISTORY OF LITIGATION

James Dean Walker was charged with murdering a young North Little Rock Police officer on April 16, 1963. At his trial a year later, Walker pled not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. As Judge Henley aptly observed in a later habeas corpus opinion, “Walker did not testify at the first trial and the Court gets the impression from reading the transcript of the trial that the principal defense relied upon was insanity; the fact of the killing of Vaughn by Walker seems not to have been denied seriously.” Walker v.…