Opinion ID: 215844
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Selsor's original trial and direct appeal

Text: Following his arrest, Selsor was charged in the District Court, Tulsa County, with the offenses of Armed Robbery, CRF-75-2183; Shooting With Intent to Kill, CRF-75-2182; and, Murder in the First Degree, CRF-75-2181, After Former Conviction of a Felony. Selsor v. State (Selsor I), 562 P.2d 926, 927 (Okla. Crim.App.1977). The case proceeded to trial in January 1976, and Selsor was tried conjointly with co-defendant . . . Dodson. [1] Id. A guilty verdict was returned as to all three charges [against Selsor], punishment being assessed at death for Murder in the First Degree; twenty (20) years' imprisonment for Shooting With Intent to Kill; and, twenty-five (25) years' imprisonment for Armed Robbery. [2] Id. Selsor filed a direct appeal challenging his convictions and sentences. On April 6, 1977, the OCCA issued a published decision affirming all of Selsor's convictions, as well as the sentences imposed for the Shooting With Intent to Kill and Armed Robbery convictions. The OCCA, however, modified Selsor's death sentence to life imprisonment. In doing so, the OCCA concluded, consistent with its then-recent decision in Riggs v. Branch, 554 P.2d 823 (Okla.Crim.App.1976), that the Oklahoma death penalty statute under which Selsor was sentenced, Okla. Stat. tit. 21, § 701.3 (1973), was unconstitutional. Selsor I, 562 P.2d at 927.