 Jackie Washington was charged with first-degree murder in Dallas, Texas. At the trial, Washington testified on his own behalf, and he put a great deal of the blame on an accomplice named Charles Fuller. He testified that Fuller had been carrying the murder weapon — a shotgun — at the scene. When he sought to have Fuller testify to back up his story, the trial judge blocked him on the basis of a Texas statute which provided that "persons charged or convicted as co-participants in the same crime could not testify for one another". The law, however, did not block a co-participant from testifying for the state.
