Today in Supreme Court History: October 9

Pilon v. Bordenkircher, 444 U.S. 1 (decided October 9, 1979): Court, relying on its own recent precedent, reverses the denial of habeas and remands back to District Court; after state court conviction for manslaughter, lower court applied former standard for violation of Due Process (reversing only if there is “no evidence in support of conviction”); new, more defendant-friendly standard is whether if “after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt”

Agoston v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 340 U.S. 844 (decided October 9, 1950): denying cert in murder case; Frankfurter in support writes to emphasize that denying cert does not mean the Court is affirming the decision below; Douglas and Black dissent, pointing out that this case is similar to a recent case where the Court had overturned conviction on Due Process grounds (Turner v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 338 U.S. 62) (in that pre-Miranda case, appearance before magistrate was delayed until confession had been obtained by police after “prolonged questioning”)