Final Arguments Heard in 1962 Murder Retrial

A jury heard final arguments Monday in the retrial of Booker T. Hillery, charged with fatally stabbing a 15-year-old girl in the throat with a scissors almost a quarter of a century ago.

Instructions to the panel were scheduled later in the day before the jury could begin the task of deciding whether Hillery murdered Marlene Miller at her rural home near Hanford while she was sewing a party dress in March, 1962.

Hillery, now 55, was convicted of the killing then and even was sentenced twice to die in the gas chamber, but those rulings were nullified as various death penalty laws were declared unconstitutional.

Hillery won a new trial when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed his conviction last January on grounds that blacks were systematically excluded from the county grand jury that indicted him. Hillery, a farm hand at the time of the murder, is black. Marlene Miller was white.

Change of Venue

The trial was moved to Monterey County on a change of venue because the murder remains well remembered in Hanford.

On Monday, Kings County Dist. Atty. Robert Maline reviewed for jurors the evidence the prosecution presented. Key items included a reported sighting of Hillery’s car near Miller’s home and a pair of mismatched gloves found in a slough that were identified as Hillery’s.

The prosecution also offered new, more modern technical analysis of old evidence and showed that flecks of paint from the roof liner of Hillery’s car were found in the Miller home and in the girl’s shoe.

Another piece of new evidence came from a former jailer who said he heard Hillery say one night: “I didn’t mean to kill that girl. I didn’t mean to.”

But defense attorney Clifford Tedmon challenged the reliability of that witness and a fellow prison inmate who also linked Hillery to the killing.

No Eyewitnesses

Tedmon contended that the bags containing paint samples could have been contaminated over the years and stressed that the evidence against his client was entirely circumstantial with no eyewitnesses.

“Understand, you cannot prove that Mr. Hillery committed the crime,” Tedmon said. “You must put the burden of proving guilt on the prosecution.”

The defense counsel said the panel should return a verdict that basically says Hillery was “not proven guilty.”