terms of a
lack of due process despite the absence of a specific provision in the
Bill of Rights."--Ibid. 124.

In a lengthy article based upon a painstaking examination of original
data pertaining to the "understanding of the import of the * * * clauses
of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment at the time the Amendment was
adopted"; that is, during the period 1866-1868, Professor Charles
Fairman has marshalled a "mountain of evidence" calculated to prove
conclusively the inaccuracy of Justice Black's reading of
history.--Charles Fairman. Does the Fourteenth Amendment Incorporate the
Bill of Rights? The Original Understanding.--2 Stanford Law Review,
5-139 (1949).

[903] 332 U.S. 596 (1948).

[904] Ibid. 600-601.--In a dissenting opinion, in which Chief Justice
Vinson and Justices Jackson and Reed concurred, Justice Burton remarked
that inasmuch as the issue of the voluntariness of the confession was
one of fact, turning largely on the credibility of witnesses, the
determination thereof by the trial judge and jury should not be
overturned upon mere conjecture.--Ibid. 607, 615.

[905] 332 U.S. 742, 745 (1948).

[906] 335 U.S. 252 (1948).

[907] The Court also held that the procedure of Alabama, in requiring
the accused to obtain permission from an appellate court before filing a
petition in a trial court for a writ of error _coram nobis_ was
consistent with due process. Alabama was deemed to possess "ample
machinery for correcting the Constitutional wrong of which the * * *
[accused] complained."--Ibid. 254, 260-261.

[908] The accused, in his petition, neither denied his guilt nor any of
the acts on which his conviction was based. He simply contended that
because of fear generated by coercive police methods applied to him, he
had concealed such evidence from his own counsel at the time of the
trial and had informed the latter that his confessions were voluntary.
His charges of duress were supported by affidavits of three associates
in crime, none of whom claims to have seen the alleged beatings of the
petitioner.--Ibid. 265-266.

[909] In a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Douglas and Rutledge
concurred, Justice Murphy maintained that inasmuch as there was some
evidence to substantiate the petitioner's claim, the latter should have
been allowed a hearing in the trial court. According to Justice Murphy,
a conviction based on a coerced confession is "void even though the
confession is in fact true" and the