Presiding over the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge William A. Morrison reached Case No. 37,900. "Jack Rubenstein," he intoned, "alias Jack Ruby, from Dallas. Reversed and remanded with directions." Thus the court last week struck down the verdict that in 1964 had sentenced Lee Harvey Oswald's killer to death. Their unanimous decision could mean freedom for Ruby within a few months.
The appeals court ruled that Dallas's Judge Joe B. Brown had made a serious error in the original trial by allowing jurors to hear testimony that Ruby, at least ten minutes after his arrest, had admitted he had...