Ex Parte Finney

1922 OK CR 57, 205 P. 197, 21 Okla. Crim. 103, 1922 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 218
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 18, 1922
DocketNo. A-4223.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1922 OK CR 57 (Ex Parte Finney) 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
Ex Parte Finney, 1922 OK CR 57, 205 P. 197, 21 Okla. Crim. 103, 1922 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 218 (Okla. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

BESSEY, J.

This application for a writ of habeas corpus is made for the purpose of having this petitioner admitted to bail on two charges of murder pending against the petitioner in the district court of Kay county, Okla., wherein it appears that two innocent women were killed when this petitioner and several other men attempted to make an arrest of the driver of an automobilé in which the deceased women were passengers.

The salient facts in the record before us disclose that on the/evening of the 11th of January, 1922, the jailer at New-kirk, then in charge of the sheriff’s office, telephoned to the central office at Kaw City, about 18 miles distant, to get some officer to talk to the jailer. Later some person, whose name the jailer did not remember, talked to the jailer, stating that he was a commissioned officer. The jailer told this per *105 son that there was a Hudson Super-Six car beaded that way, driven by a man with about a week’s growth of beard and wearing a fur cap, and that he (the jailer) had information that it might be a whisky car or a “wet car,” suggesting that the Kaw City officer give it, as the jailer expressed it, “the once over. ’ ’

The person who received this telephone communication at Kaw City was a Mr. Hungerford, who went to a moving picture show, where he found the petitioner, Finney, and informed him concerning the jailer’s message. At this time the petitioner was city marshal, and also had a commission as deputy sheriff. These two, with several others, procured two ears and drove out towards Newkirk, and at a point near the Indian Agency called Washunga they parked their cars across the road, one on either side, so that other cars passing would be compelled to pass between the two, through a space just wide enough to permit passage. Here and in this manner these parties awaited the coming of the suspicious car. Presently another posse was organized and armed in Kaw City, and they in another car came to the place where these two ears were parked. About this time the exhaust of a moving car was heard in the distance, and this last car with several occupants, detoured in that direction towards Newkirk. Soon after a Ford car, without lights and with the curtains drawn, slowly approached the place where the two cars were parkeci across the road, followed by a third car, which had detoured to its rear.

There were six occupants in this closed Ford car: Burril Rhoten, the driver, living near Kaw City; Mrs. Bousman, a neighbor; Mrs. Skinner, another neighbor; Mrs. Bliss, of Tulsa, Okla., and her little daughter; and Irvin Dubock, a young man employed in the neighborhood — none of whom were accused of violating any law. They had left Newkirk on their *106 return trip borne a little after dark. Eight or nine miles out of Newkirk their lights went out, and for that reason they were traveling slowly, and arrived at Washunga, where the two ears were parked, about 9:30. As the driver approached the space between the two parked ears he shifted gears into low and proceeded very slowly, in order to pass through between the cars without striking either, which he did, without being interrogated here by any of the posse there assembled. When the third car following arrived, a moment later, some one of the party said. “That looks like a suspicious car.” Thereupon the petitioner and a man named Butler got on the running boards of this third car, a Ford coupe, and drove past and ahead of this party of six in the closed Ford a short distance, where they stopped close to the side of the road, leaving their engine running! Butler and the petitioner dismounted and stood in or near the beaten tracks in the road, and it is claimed that they commanded the driver of the approaching closed car to stop. At this time a number of the posse were following closely in the rear, in one of the cars that had been parked, as before stated, If the petitioner or Butler commanded the driver of the closed car to stop, the driver either did not hear the command or was afraid to comply with the demand, in the belief that they were about to be robbed. However this may be, the driver of the closed Ford failed to stop, and as the car passed the coupe near where Butler and the petitioner stood both fired their pistols, and several shots penetrated the body and top of the closed! car from the rear, one shot killing Mrs. Bousman instantly, and another shot fatally wounding Mrs. Skinner, resulting in her death a few hours later. The. record shows that in all six or seven shots were fired', and that five or six penetrated the car containing the six occupants, the shots entering the body and top of the car at from three to six feet above the ground. Whether any of these shots were fired *107 by any of tbe occupants of tbe car following does not clearly appear. Mrs. Bliss’ testimony was, in part, as follows:

“Q. Just relate tbe facts surrounding tbe shooting, tbe killing of Mi*s. Bousman and Mrs. Skinner. A. Well, I came to Kaw City Tuesday night to visit my sister Mrs. Bousman, and she wasn’t at home; she was at Newkirk visiting my sister Mrs. Marcus; and Brother had to send to town to get some things, and Mrs. Skinner, my brother’s wife, and I came with Burril Rhoten especially to get my sister and take her back, so I could visit with her before I went home; and we came up in the afternoon, and we started back very peaceably, and when we got out about eight miles of town we burned the lights out; I just can’t tell exactly, between eight and ten miles; and we had then to drive very slow because we were in the dark. It was moonlight. We could see fairly well, riding along very peaceably. When we got to Washunga — I believe that is the place — the two cars were setting there, one on one side of the road, and one on the other, and we had to drive between very slow. We pulled in between these cars and got quite a distance when they shot into us. That is the first I knew of anything.
“Q. You had turned the corner? A. Yes, and started towards Kaw. I am not sure of the directions there at Wash-unga ; we had turned the corner, I think.
“Q. All right; state whether there was a car following you in. A. Yes; I can’t just say positive, but about a mile before we turned the corner there was a car dropped in behind us, a Ford ear with very bright lights. I hoped the car would stay behind us till we got home; it helped to light up the road for us; the lights were wonderful that was on that ear; and this ear followed us. * * *
‘ ‘ Q. Did you notice any one in the road ahead of you before the shooting, a short while before the shooting took place? A. There was a man stood beside the big car we passed.
*108 “Q. Did you bear any one make any cries for you to stop?' A. No, sir; nothing whatever. I heard nothing till I heard the reports of the gun.
“Q. Where were you sitting? A. In the back seat, on the left side.
“Q. Do you know which shots, numerically speaking, killed Mrs. Bousman and Mrs. Skinner? A. Well, both shots — • one shot didn’t kill them both. The third shot killed Mrs. Bousman, my sister, and the next one followed on and killed my sister-in-law, Mrs. Skinner.
“Q. That would be the third and fourth shots? A.

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Bluebook (online)
1922 OK CR 57, 205 P. 197, 21 Okla. Crim. 103, 1922 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-finney-oklacrimapp-1922.