Procunier v. Atchley (1970)
- Docket
- 44
- Decided
- 1970-01-01
- Category
- General
Summary
Question: Did the district court err in refusing to apply a presumption of correctness to the California state courts’ finding that Atchley’s tape recorded statement was voluntary? Conclusion: Justice Potter Stewart, writing for eight members of the court, delivered the majority opinion. The Supreme Court held that an applicant for habeus corpus is not entitled to a new hearing on voluntariness unless he can show that his version of events, if true, would require the conclusion that the confession was involuntary. In this case, Atchley did not do that. He merely pointed to shortcomings in the trial court procedures. The trial court had given full consideration to the issue of voluntariness and applied the correct constitutional standard. Justice Hugo L. Black concurred in the judgment and substantially all of the opinion.