Table of Contents I. History Context/Fact Pattern II. Procedural History/Opposing Arguments of the Counsel III. The Holding

Vasquez v. Hillery

In 1962, An African-American man named Booker T. Hillery was trialed and convicted for the first degree murder of Marlene Miller, a fifteen-year old girl who lived in Hanford, California. Hillery was accused of stabbing Miller with scissors while she was said to be sewing a dress alone in her home. He was also accused of fighting with Miller and hogtied her only to stab her repeatedly in her chest. Unfortunately for Hillery, there was someone who witnessed the incident and claimed that it had been Hillery at the home who had also been convicted of rape and had been on parole at the time for the crime he committed in the past. Hillery pleaded innocent but was indicted of the crime regardless of the facts simply because the members of the grand jury were systematically excluded of the black race. Clifford Earl Tedmon argued the cause and filed a brief on behalf of Hillery. The Warden (Vasquez) of San Quentin State Prison requested that the Court retire a “doctrine of equal protection jurisprudence first announced in 1880.” He announced to the court that “The time has come for us to abandon the rule requiring reversal of the conviction of any defendant indicted by a grand jury from which members of his own race systemically excluded.” He was “thrice sentenced” to death for the murder in which that sentence was reduced to life imprisonment because the California Supreme Court found that imposition of the death penalty was inconsistent with the California Constitution. Over the next sixteen years, Hillery pursued his Equal Protection Clause until he was able to file for a Habeas Corpus which is a court order to summon a prisoner to hear from a prison official the reason why he was imprisoned for the