ABSTRACT
Joseph Hurtado and wife Susie lived in Sacramento, California. Susie and Jose Estuardo began an affair that Joseph quickly discovered. Hurtado acted to end the affair, but Estuardo persisted in his pursuit of Susie. Hurtado approached Estuardo in the street and shot him three times at close range. Hurtado was charged with murder. Based on the information document, Hurtado was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. He appealed to the California Supreme Court, which affirmed his sentence. Hurtado's counsel later argued that either the Due Process Clause or the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment should be interpreted so as to apply to the states the Fifth Amendment protection of a grand jury hearing. Upon losing this argument at California's high court, he appealed to the US Supreme Court. In an opinion penned by Justice Stanley Matthews, the Court argued that the two Due Process Clauses in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments had the same meaning.
