"It was very uncomfortable in there," author Truman Capote told reporters as he exited his shortened stay in Santa Ana city jail, on October 23, 1970
Sentenced to forty hours and a $500 fine for failing to report as a witness in a murder trial in the city, concerns over the 48-year-old Capote's health cut the sentence short (to about 18 1/2 hours total) provided Capote paid the fine.
Joseph Morse, already convicted to killing his mother and sister with a rock and a baseball bat, was serving time on death row and was in 1970 standing trial for the murder of a fellow inmate at San Quentin. Capote interviewed Morse in relation to work on capital punishment.
Morse was convicted of the the third murder, but in 1972 California rescinded its capital punishment laws and Morse's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
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