Ruby v. State
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''Jacob Rubenstein v. State of Texas'' 407 S.W.2d 793 (1966) was a decision by the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) is the court of last resort for all criminal matters in Texas. The Court, which is based in the Supreme Court Building in Downtown Austin, is composed of a Presiding Judge and eight judges. Article V of ...
, the highest criminal appellate court in the State of Texas, that
Jack Ruby Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; April 25, 1911January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner and alleged associate of the Chicago Outfit who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of th ...
(real name Jacob Rubenstein; "Jack Ruby" was his nickname), the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, had been denied a fair trial. The decision ordered his conviction reversed, but Ruby died before he could be retried.


The crime

The arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald for the murder of President John F. Kennedy and Dallas police officer
J. D. Tippit J. D. Tippit (September 18, 1924 – November 22, 1963) was an American World War II U.S Army veteran and police officer who served as an 11-year veteran with the Dallas Police Department. About 45 minutes after the assassination of John F ...
was widely televised in Dallas. News of Oswald's transfer, from the local jail to a county facility, on Sunday November 24, 1963, had been announced the night before. At 11:21 am CST while authorities were preparing to transfer Oswald by car from the basement of police headquarters to the nearby county jail, Jack Ruby, in full view of witnesses and in front of TV cameras, pulled out a pistol and fired a snub-nosed Colt Cobra .38 into the 24-year-old Oswald's abdomen. Unconscious, Oswald was put into an ambulance and rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where doctors tried to save the life of John F. Kennedy two days earlier. Oswald died at 1:07 pm.


The trial

The trial was widely covered by local, national and international media. Henry Wade was the prosecutor. The defendant, represented ''
pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...
'' by famed attorney
Melvin Belli Melvin Mouron Belli (July 29, 1907 – July 9, 1996) was a prominent United States lawyer, writer, and actor known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gab ...
, requested that the trial be moved out of the Dallas area because of the enormous publicity. This request was denied. Some observers thought that the case could have been disposed of as a "murder without malice" charge (roughly equivalent to
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...
), with a maximum prison sentence of five years. Instead, Belli attempted to prove that Ruby was legally insane and had a history of mental illness in his family (the latter being true, as his mother had been committed to a mental hospital years before). On March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted of murder with malice, for which he received a death sentence. The verdict was captured on film, including Belli's statement to the court that the trial had effectively been a sham.


The appeal

Following Ruby's March 1964 conviction for murder with malice, Ruby's lawyers, led by Sam Houston Clinton, appealed, arguing that he could not have received a fair trial in the city of Dallas because of the excessive publicity surrounding the case.


The decision

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in a unanimous opinion on October 5, 1966, that Ruby's jailhouse confession was improperly admitted into evidence at trial and additionally, that the trial court erred in refusing to grant the motion for change of venue. The appellate court overturned Ruby's conviction and death sentence, and ordered that he be retried in some location other than Dallas County. Arrangements were under way for a new trial to be held in February 1967, in Wichita Falls, Texas, when, on December 9, 1966, Ruby was admitted to
Parkland Hospital Parkland often refers to a park. Parkland or Parklands may also refer to: Geography * Aspen parkland, a biome transitional between prairie and boreal forest (taiga) * Landscaped parkland, a managed rural area associated with European country hous ...
in Dallas, suffering from pneumonia. A day later, doctors realized he had cancer in his liver, lungs, and brain. He died on January 3, 1967.


Aftermath

Due to the prominence of the case, in 2015 Tarrant County authorities chose to keep the paper court documents of the case as historical documents even though they have been digitized. The Tarrant County files involve the state trying to ban Belli from being Ruby's lawyer.


References

* Appellate Court Decision
Crim. No. 37900
{{John F. Kennedy assassination Assassination of John F. Kennedy United States death penalty case law Capital punishment in Texas 1966 in United States case law Texas state case law