Note 941 — AMENDMENT 14 (continued 4)

315 U.S. 411, 413, 421-422 (1942).—Justice Black, together with Justices Douglas and Murphy, dissented on the ground that the Florida court, "with intimations of approval" by the majority, had never found it necessary to pass on the credibility of Hysler's allegations, but had erroneously declared that all his allegations, even if true and fully known to the trial court, would not have precluded a conviction.

In an earlier case, Lisenba v. California, 314 U.S. 219 (1941), the Court, without discussion of this principle relating to the use of perjured testimony, sustained a California appellate court's denial of a petition for habeas corpus. The accused, after having been convicted and sentenced to death for murder, filed his petition supported by affidavits of a codefendant, who, after pleading guilty and serving as a witness for the State had received a life sentence. The latter affirmed that his testimony at the trial of the petitioner "was obtained by deceit, fraud, collusion, and coercion, and was known to the prosecutor to be false." Even though the California court had denied the petition for habeas corpus without taking oral evidence and without requiring the State to answer, the Supreme Court upheld this action on the ground that there was no adequate showing of a corrupt bargain between the prosecution and the codefendant and that the appraisal of conflicting evidence was for the Court below. Even if latter's refusal to believe the codefendant's depositions were erroneous, such error, the Court added, would not amount to a denial of due process.