Opinion
No. A-2155.
Opinion Filed February 2, 1915.
(Syllabus by the Court.)
APPEAL — Abandonment — Commutation of Sentence. When an appeal in a death penalty case is pending in this court, and the Governor, upon the application of the plaintiff in error, commutes the sentence to life imprisonment, the granting of the commutation operates as an abandonment of the appeal, and, when the action of the Governor is brought to the attention of this court, the appeal will be dismissed.
Appeal from District Court, Mayes County; Preston S. Davis, Judge.
Sequoyah West was convicted of murder, and appeals. Appeal dismissed.
A.C. Brewster, for plaintiff in error.
Chas. West, Atty. Gen., and Smith C. Matson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Plaintiff in error, Sequoyah West, jointly informed against with Cull K. West and Jesse Clevenger for the murder of one Dan Frame, alleged to have been committed on or about the 7th day of March, 1913, by shooting, was separately tried and convicted of murder with the death penalty assessed. To reverse the judgment an appeal was perfected. While the appeal was still pending in this court, Lee Cruce, Governor, upon the application of plaintiff in error, commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.
Where a commutation of sentence is applied for, and the same is granted, and the action of the Governor in the case is brought to the attention of this court pending the determination of the appeal, the appeal will be dismissed as having been abandoned.
The appeal in this case is therefore dismissed.
FURMAN and ARMSTRONG, JJ., concur.