Case ID: okla-crim_29/html/0027-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "BESSEY, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In re OPINION OF THE JUDGES. (In re JOHNNIE WASHINGTON)
    No. A-5390.
    Opinion Filed Jan. 10, 1925.
    (232 Pac. 121.)
   Opinion of the judges of the Criminal Court of Appeals in response to a request of the Governor relative to the conviction of Johnnie Washington of the crime of murder.

Hon. M. E. Trapp, Governor of the State of Oklahoma — Sir: In response to your official communication of December 31, 1924, addressed to this court, asking for an opinion as provided in section 2786, Compiled Statutes, 1921, in the matter of the conviction of Johnnie Washington of the crime of murder in the district court of Jackson county on the 12th day of December, 1924, by judgment of said court sentenced to be put to death by electrocution on the 19th day of February, 1925, within the walls of the state penitentiary at McAlester, we hereby submit the following opinion of the judges:

BESSEY, J.

The record submitted by you is what is known under our practice as a case-made, a complete record of each successive action of the trial court at the trial, including the testimony taken. From this it appears that Johnnie Washington, the defendant in the trial court, has served written notice of his intention to appeal from the judgment of the lower court to this court, which under the Constitution and laws of this state he may do at any time within six months from December 12, 1924, and that steps have been taken to perfect the appeal.

You are therefore advised that if the appeal is not lodged in this court before February 19, 1925, in order to accord the accused his statutory right to appeal within six months, the execution of the sentence of death should be postponed to some date after June 12, 1925.

If, in the meantime, the appeal is perfected and filed in this court, that will automatically give the accused the right to a further suspension of the execution of sentence until the merits of the appeal are finally determined.

MATSON, P. J., and DOYLE, J., concur.