The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-23
CORRIVAU APPEAL
DENIED BY START
Question of Rights Waived by
Murderer Is ignored in
Decision

In affirming the judgment of the dis
trict court of Lake county in finding
Louis Corrivau guilty of murder in the
first degree, the supreme court of Min
nesota fails to pass upon the impor-
tant question raised in the case
whether or not convicted prisoner
who has accepted a communication of
sentence at the hands of the board of
pardons removes himself from the
right of appeal from the Judgment of
the court?
Corrivaus conviction is affirmed by
the court upon general terms, with no
reference to the question raised as to
his eligibility to appeal in view of his
acceptance of the communication of the
death sentence to life Imprisonment.
In the opinion written by Chief Jus
tice Start, it is explained that because
of a former connection with the pros
ecution Justice Douglas did not con-
slider the case before the supreme
court, and that of the remaining four
justices they were divided equally on
the question as to whether Corrivau
had waived his right to appeal, as con-
tended by the attorney general, be-
cause of his acceptance of the terms
of the communication of sentence grant
ed him by the state board of pardons.
The attorney general had urged that
in accepting the Communication, Corri-
vau stood in the same position as
though he had pleaded guilty to the
Indictment.
This feature of the case because of
the inability of the court to agree, was
ignored and the appeal to the supreme
court decided on it's merits.
Corriyau was convicted Dec. 20, 1908,
in Lake county, of murder in the first
degree in having killed James Alain in
saloon brawl at Knife River, Lake
county. Formal sentence was passed
Feb. 2, 1904, and April % the board of
pardons COMMITTED the accused's SEN
tence to imprisonment for life at Still
water He is now serving his sentence.
: July l5 the appeal from the Lake
county district court was taken.
Justice Starts Decision
Passing the question of his right to
appeal because Of his acceptance of
the communication, the court says in it's
syllabus as to the denial of the appeal
in the case:
1T was not error, in view of the
uncontradicted evidence, for the trial
court to charge the jury that the hon.
lclde was neither eXcusable nor justi-
fable, and thereby exclude from the
consideration of the jury the question
of self-defense
Nor was it error to instruct the
jury that the burden was on the de-
: PENDANT to establish his claim that he
was so intoxicated at the time of the
killing that he was incapable of form
ing any intent Nor was it error to in
struct them that an act committed by
"a person in state of voluntary intoXi-
cation was not less criminal by reason
of such condition, but that if the de-
PENDANT was so drunk at the time of
the killing as to be incapable of en-
: tertalning a premeditated design to eff
feet the death of the deceased he could
not be convicted of murder in the first
degree; that if he was incapable by
reason of intoXication of entertaining
any design to kill he could not be con-
victed of murder in the second de-
gree and that such a finding would re-
duce the offense to manslaughter- In
the first degree."l
Other Decisions
Twenty decisions were handed down
! by the supreme court yesterday and
all were affirmations but three. In ad-
dition to the smoke ordinance case and
the CorriVau case, they are:
Johanna Semper, appellant, VS.. Joseph
= II. Coates. respondent.
Order reversed. Douglas, J.
In re Estate of Fanny Semper, de-
ceased, Johanna Semper, appellant
= VS.. Joseph H. Coates and John
Coates, surviving executors of the
estate of Fanny Semper, deceased
respondents.
Order affirmed.
Bradley, Clark & Co., appellants, VS.
c. S. Benson, as trustee in bank
ruptcy of M. Bisenius, respondent.
Order reversed. Brown, J.
Christina j. Gilbert, as administrators