In the case of Jackson v. Taylor, Acting Warden in 1956, petitioner Robert L. Jackson was convicted for murder by a California court and sentenced to death. He appealed his conviction on the grounds that he had been denied due process because the trial judge refused to instruct the jury about lesser included offenses such as manslaughter or second-degree murder. The U.S Supreme Court ruled against Jackson stating that it is not constitutionally required for a trial judge to instruct juries on lesser included offenses in capital cases if there is no evidence supporting these charges. This decision upheld Jackson's conviction and sentence.

In the dissenting opinion for Jackson v. Taylor, Acting Warden, 1956, Justice Felix Frankfurter argued that the majority's decision to grant habeas corpus relief was incorrect because it failed to respect state court decisions and interfered with their ability to enforce criminal law. He contended that federal courts should only intervene in state cases when there is a clear violation of constitutional rights or an egregious error in legal procedure. In this case, he believed neither condition had been met; rather than being denied due process as claimed by petitioner Jackson, he had received a fair trial according to California law at the time. Furthermore, Justice Frankfurter criticized his colleagues' reliance on new rules established after Jackson's conviction instead of applying ex post facto laws which were operative during his trial proceedings.