Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-90-05170/USCOURTS-ca10-90-05170-0/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 530
Nature of Suit: Prisoner Petitions - Habeas Corpus
Cause of Action: 

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UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

JOHNNY RAY SMITH, ) 

) 

Petitioner-Appellant, ) 

) 

v. ) 

) 

EARL ALLEN, Warden; ATTORNEY ) 

GENERAL of the State of Oklahoma, ) 

) 

Respondent-Appellee. ) 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT* 

. '] ~ ,. ~ 1 -~ l ..,...., J 

ROBERT L. HO~C~TE~ 

Clerk 

No. 90-5170 

(D.C. No. 89-C-1079-B) 

(N.D. Oklahoma) 

Before LOGAN, SEYMOUR, and TACHA, Circuit Judges. 

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel 

has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially 

assist the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 

34(a); 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. 

Petitioner Johnny Ray Smith appeals the district court's 

denial of his application for a writ of habeas corpus filed 

pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Petitioner sought to have the 

indeterminate sentence of ten years to life imprisonment, which 

* This order and judgment has no precedential value and shall not 

be cited, or used by any court within the Tenth Circuit, except 

for purposes of establishing the doctrines of the law of the case, 

res judicata, or collateral estoppel. 10th Cir. R. 36.3. 

Appellate Case: 90-5170 Document: 010110076372 Date Filed: 01/14/1991 Page: 1 
was imposed upon him by an Oklahoma state court, set aside as a 

violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States 

Constitution. 

When petitioner committed his crime and was found guilty of 

second degree murder, the applicable statute was Okla. Stat. Ann. 

§ 701.4, requiring the sentence which was ultimately imposed upon 

petitioner. Thereafter, in 1976, the statute was repealed. 

Petitioner relies upon White v. State, 774 P.2d 1072 (Okla. Crim. 

App. 1989), as forbidding an indeterminate sentence when a life 

sentence is the maximum imposed. The White decision, however, 

applied to a sentence under a later sentencing statute. This 

court has previously treated the situation involved in cases like 

that of petitioner, who was found guilty and sentenced under an 

earlier statute. In Murray v. Cowley, 913 F.2d 832 (10th Cir. 

1990), we held that there was no violation of equal protection in 

a situation identical to that of petitioner's. This appeal is 

controlled by that decision. 

AFFIRMED. 

The mandate shall issue forthwith. 

-2-

Entered for the Court 

James K. Logan 

Circuit Judge 

Appellate Case: 90-5170 Document: 010110076372 Date Filed: 01/14/1991 Page: 2