Dunn v. State

1921 OK CR 49, 196 P. 739, 18 Okla. Crim. 493, 1921 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 219
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 6, 1921
DocketA-3923
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 1921 OK CR 49 (Dunn v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dunn v. State, 1921 OK CR 49, 196 P. 739, 18 Okla. Crim. 493, 1921 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 219 (Okla. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinion

BES'SEY, J.

On the 80th day of April, 1917, the defendant filed his motion for a new trial, which was on the same day heard and overruled, and the defendant was sentenced to imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a term of two years. Defendant gave notice of an appeal, and was given 90 days to make and serve a case-made. The amount of the supersedeas bond was fixed at $2,500, to be approved by the clerk. Later the time for making and certifying the case-made was extended for a further period of 60 days, the supersedeas bond was- made and approved -by the clerk, and the defendant was given his liberty.

*495 The appeal was not perfected by filing the case-made within the time allowed by the court, nor by transcript within the time provided by law. On the 25th day of January., 1921, the defendant’s bond was forfeited and later the defendant was apprehended, and the county attorney, preparatory to the execution of the sentence, made application to the court for a nunc pro tunc order for a judgment entry in accordance with the verdict and sentence of the court. This motion was resisted by the defendant, who made a motion to strike the state’s motion from the files, which motion to strike was by the court heard and overruled. All parties being present, the motion for a nunc pro-tunc order was heard and proof submitted upon the uestion as to whether-in fact a judgment and sentence had been rendered, although no formal entry had been made by the clerk, though the clerk’s minutes and other portions of the record indicated that a judgment and sentence had in fact been rendered. The motion for a nunc pro tunc order was sustained February 7, 1921, and judgment nunc pro tunc, as of April 30, 1917, ordered entered accordingly.

On February 9, 1921, the defendant filed a motion in arrest of judgment, which was by the court overruled. On the same day the defendant filed a motion for a new trial, which was likewise overruled. The defendant then gave notice of an appeal from the judgment entered nunc pro tunc, and asked time to prepare and serve a case-made, which was by the court denied. On February 21, 1921, defendant filed in this court a transcript of the record below, with a petition in error attached, and on February 21, 1921, defendant also filed in this court a motion asking this court to fix an appeal bond, pend *496 ing further proceedings on appeal. By agreement of parties, this motion "was heard and is now before this court for consideration.

In order for this court to pass upon the question of the appeal bond, as prayed for in the motion filed in this court, it becomés necessary to determine the defendant’s right to appeal at this time from the judgment and sentence nunc pro tunc. The Constitution of this state gives to every defendant in a criminal case the right. of appeal. The statutes provide the method and' time of exercising this right. .Section 5988, Rev. Laws 1910, provides:

“An appeal to the Criminal Court of Appeals may be taken by the defendant, as a matter of right, from any judgment against him; and upon the appeal, ány decision of the court, or intermediate order made' in the progress of the case may be reviewed.”

Section 5991 provides for the time in which this appeal shall be taken, as follows:

“In misdemeanor cases the appeal must be taken within sixty days after the judgment is rendered: Provided, however, that the trial court or judge' may, for good cause shown, extend the time in which such appeal may be taken not exceeding sixty days. In felony cases the appeal must be taken within six months after the judgment is rendered, and a transcript in both felony and misdemeanor cases must be filed as hereinafter directed.”

The appeal is from the judgment against the defendant, and in a felony ease must be taken within six months from the time the judgment is rendered. It will be noted *497 that the word “rendered” is used in the statute, but the defendant in this ease contends that the statute contemplates that the time in which an appeal may be tak'en should be reckoned from the time the judgment was entered mine pro tunc.

It is not for this court to construe into a plain, unambiguous statute provisions not therein expressed, for the reason that, in the view of the court, the statute should contain other or modifying provisions.. IThe Legislature could as easily have provided that the time should run from the day the clerk made the judgment entry, but it did not do so. The clerk’s record is the best evidence of the judgment and sentence, but if this record is incomplete, but enough appears to indicate the scope of the judgment rendered, the omissions can be supplied by appropriate orders of the trial court, or by application to this court. The validity of the judgment cannot be avoided as between the parties because the clerk failed to perform his ministerial duties in making up the record.

In ordinary legal parlance judgment and sentence have the same meaning, and where, through the negligence or omission of the clerk, the judgment record is defective or incomplete, the court may, upon a proper showing, require the clerk to make the record conform to the facts. Petition of Breeding, 75 Okla. 169, 182 Pac. 899; Ex parte Lyda Howland, 3 Okla. Cr. 142, 104 Pac. 927, Ann. Cas. 1912A, 840, 17 C. J. 32, title, “What Constitutes Final Judgment”; 8 R. C. L. 246; 16 C. J. 1266.

The court decisions from other states, holding that the time for taking an appeal dates from the entry of judgment, are due to the fact that in many states the statutes *498 provide that the time shall run from the date of the entry and recording of the judgment. For a discussion of these cases see notes and annotations to In re Weber, 28 L. R. A. 621. But these decisions are entitled to no weight where the statutes provide, as they do in this state, that the time for taking an appeal shall run from the date of the rendition of judgment.

The transcript of the proceedings before us discloses that under, date of April 30, 1917, there was recorded in Journal No. 10 of the trial court, at page 236, the following :

“Defendant present in person and'¡by counsel; motion for new trial overruled; defendant excepts; defendant sentenced by thé court to two years in the state penitentiary at hard labor, sentence to start on arrival at the penitentiary. For good cause shown defendant given ninety days to make and serve case-made, ten days to suggest amendments, to be settled on five days’ notice. Bond fixed at $2,500, to he approved by the clerk of this court. Defendant given twenty days to file bond.”

This record, together with the other testimony taken in support of the county attorney’s motion for a nunc pro tunc order, satisfies this court beyond all doubt that a judgment of conviction was in fact pronounced. The order nunc pro tunc was not predicated upon a mere presumption that a judgment should have been rendered, but was based on facts recited in the record, showing that such judgment had actually been rendered; and the nunc pro tunc

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1921 OK CR 49, 196 P. 739, 18 Okla. Crim. 493, 1921 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 219, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dunn-v-state-oklacrimapp-1921.