The State - News from April 9, 1986

A man twice convicted of the scissors slaying of a teen-age girl in Hanford almost a quarter of a century ago has pleaded innocent again before a third trial, this one ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Booker T. Hillery Jr., 52, who is black, sought the new trial because he said blacks were excluded from the grand jury that indicted him. Hillery has been serving a life sentence for the murder of 15-year-old Marlene Miller. Each of the eight times a parole hearing was set, residents of Hanford who still remember Miller’s death petitioned successfully to deny Hillery parole. Kings County Dist. Atty. Robert Maline said that prosecuting Hillery again will be difficult because so much time has passed. “A number of witnesses haven’t testified in this case in at least 16 years, and a number are deceased,” Maline said.