In the case of Miller v. Pate, 1966, Lloyd Eldon Miller Jr., was convicted for murder in Illinois and sentenced to death. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction on grounds that he did not receive a fair trial due to prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecution had claimed that a pair of shorts found near the crime scene were stained with blood when they knew it was paint, which misled both the jury and defense team. This evidence played a significant role in securing Miller's conviction as it linked him directly to the crime scene. The court ruled this action by prosecutors violated due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment because they knowingly used false evidence against him during trial proceedings.

In the dissenting opinion for Miller v. Pate, Justice Harlan argued that while it was clear there had been prosecutorial misconduct in the case, he did not believe this necessarily warranted a new trial. He suggested that instead of automatically granting habeas corpus relief whenever such misconduct is found, courts should consider whether or not the defendant received a fair trial overall. In his view, despite the prosecutor's actions, Miller still received an essentially fair trial because other evidence against him was strong and compelling enough to support his conviction even without considering any tainted evidence. Therefore, he believed that federal courts should be more cautious about intervening in state criminal proceedings based on isolated instances of prosecutorial misconduct unless they seriously undermine confidence in the outcome of trials.