United States ex rel. Horton v. Mancusi

CURTIN, District Judge.

This petition for a writ of habeas corpus presents a question relating to the duty of the government to disclose evidence to the defendant in a criminal trial.

In 1954 in Chemung County Court, petitioner Norman Horton was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to life imprisonment. In 1967, after the decisions in Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964), and People v. Huntley, 15 N.Y.2d 72, 255 N.Y.S.2d 838, 294 N.E.2d 179 (1965), a hearing was held in Chemung County Court to determine the…