Prosecution Handed a Setback in Ex-Death Row Inmate’s Trial
The prosecution was dealt a blow Tuesday in the retrial of Booker T. Hillery in the murder of a 15-year-old Hanford girl 24 years ago.
Monterey County Superior Court Judge John Philips granted a defense motion to prohibit introduction of Hillery’s testimony at his original trial. He also prohibited the prosecution from using Hillery’s statements to law enforcement authorities after his arrest in the 1962 slaying of Marlene Miller.
Phillips said he ruled for the defense because the law about self-incrimination has changed since Hillery’s arrest and first trial.
After the rulings, prosecution testimony resumed in the trial.
Hillery was originally convicted of the slaying in November, 1962, and sentenced to die in the gas chamber.
The death sentence was upheld by two subsequent juries but Hillery escaped the executioner when the U.S. Supreme Court threw out California’s death penalty law, ruling that it was cruel and unusual punishment, in the 1970s.
Hillery filed numerous appeals during his 24 years in prison and last January one of them was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court when it ruled that Kings County systematically excluded blacks from its grand jury system at the time Hillery, a black, was indicted in the stabbing death of the girl, who was white.
A new trial was ordered. The trial was moved from Kings County to Monterey County because of pretrial publicity.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
