Opinion ID: 1801264
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: on motion to fix new date for execution of sentence

Text: McGEHEE, C.J. The appellant, Luther Carlyle Wheeler, was indicted, tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Forrest County, Mississippi, on a charge of murder and sentenced to suffer death by electrocution. The date fixed for the execution of the sentence by the Circuit Court of Forrest County was July 3, 1952. On the appeal prosecuted to the Supreme Court of Mississippi the conviction and death sentence was affirmed on March 16, 1953, and Friday, May 8, 1953, was fixed by this Court as the date for the execution of the sentence. A suggestion of error was filed in this Court on March 28, 1953, and overruled on April 13, 1953. Thereupon an appeal was prayed for to the Supreme Court of the United States from the final judgment of this Court, and such appeal was granted by the Chief Justice of this Court on April 20, 1953, as prayed for. The Supreme Court of the United States, treating the appeal as a petition for a writ of certiorari denied the same on October 19, 1953, and pursuant thereto a mandate was issued from the Supreme Court of the United States to this Court on December 4, 1953, after a petition for rehearing had been denied. (Hn 24) The date for the execution of the death sentence of the appellant as heretofore fixed by this Court having passed during the appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the said court having taken final action thereon as hereinbefore stated, as shown by the mandate of said court issued on the said fourth day of December, 1953, and received and filed by the Clerk of this Court on December 7, 1953, and the Attorney General of Mississippi having filed this motion to set a new date for the execution of the death sentence of the appellant, the same is hereby sustained. Motion sustained, and Friday, February 5, A.D., 1954, is hereby fixed as the date for the execution of the death sentence of the said appellant, Luther Carlyle Wheeler.