Procunier v. Atchley

delivered the opinión of the Court.

In 1959 a jury in. a California trial court found the respondent guilty of murdering his wife by firing six bullets into her body at close range. A key prosecution witness at the trial was Ray Travers,' an insurance, agent. Two days after the respondent’s wife was killed, Travers visited the respondent in jail at the latter’s request, and the two conversed regarding an insurance policy on the life of the decedent. During the course of this conversation the respondent told Travers his version of how his wife had been killed, admitting that, he had lain in…