Harris v. State

1961 OK CR 3, 358 P.2d 653, 1961 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 117
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 4, 1961
DocketNo. A-12917
StatusPublished

This text of 1961 OK CR 3 (Harris 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
Harris v. State, 1961 OK CR 3, 358 P.2d 653, 1961 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 117 (Okla. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

POWELL, Presiding Judge.

Lloyd Luman Harris, plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged by information filed in the district court of Creek County with the crime of embezzlement. Trial by jury was waived, and the cause was tried before the court. The court, on December 28, 1959 entered judgment finding the defendant guilty as charged, and fixed the punishment at one year in the State Penitentiary at McAlester.

Petition in error and casemade were filed in this Court on June 9, 1960. Brief was due to be filed within thirty days thereafter (Rule 6, Court of Criminal Appeals, 22 O.S.A. c. 18, Appendix), but was not filed until August 25, 1960. The State was due to file an answer brief within thirty days thereafter, but failed to do so. On November 2, 1960, the State filed a motion to strike casemade, contending that only the record proper could be considered. This would include, of course, the sufficiency of the information to withstand the demurrer shown by the record to have been filed. On the same day, a brief was filed by the State, in which it was urged that the information was sufficient, and that there were no jurisdictional defects. The case had previously been set on the docket for oral argument for .November 2, 1960, and oral argument had been waived by counsel for the defendant, and when the case was called it was submitted on the record and briefs, for an opinion.

On November 14, I9601 counsel for defendant, by reason of the State’s motion to strike the record as a casemade, filed in this Court a motion for additional time to make and serve casemade. Brief in support of this motion was also filed.

We shall set out the grounds of the State for dismissal, and then consider whether or not the record may be amended and doctored up at this late date to avoid consideration of the record only as a transcript. The State alleges:

“That the record discloses that on the 28th day of December, 1959, a judgment and sentence was made and entered in the above-styled and numbered cause finding the defendant, Lloyd Luman Harris, guilty of the crime of embezzlement and he was sentenced to a term of one (1) year in the State Penitentiary at McAlester. That notice of intention to appeal from said judgment and sentence was timely given. That on the same day, to-wit: December 28, 1959, and prior to the entry of said judgment and sentence, the defendant’s motion for a new trial and motion in arrest of judgment were presented and overruled with an exception noted. That upon the overruling of said motions, the defendant was given 60 days from said date in which to make and serve a casemade, with 10 days to suggest amendments, and to be settled and signed upon five (5) days notice. That no further order [655]*655extending the time to make and serve a casemade was ever entered. That the casemade was not served upon the County Attorney until the 31st day of May, 1960, which was more than sixty days from the date of entering the judgment and sentence on December 2S, 1959. That the certificate of settlement was signed by the trial judge on the 1st day of June, 1960. The record is certified by the Court Clerk as to being a full, true and correct transcript and casemade of all proceedings, orders, etc. The appeal was timely lodged in the Court of Criminal Appeals on June 9, 1960.
“The record thus being insufficient as a casemade, should be considered only as an appeal by transcript.”

Boyd v. State, 97 Okl.Cr. 331, 263 P.2d 202, 203, is cited as supporting the State’s motion.

In the Boyd case it was held:

“Where it appears from the record that judgment and sentence was entered on March 6, 1952, that the defendant’s counsel gave notice of his intention to appeal to the Criminal Court of Appeals, but no request for and no order extending time to make and serve case-made was ever entered, the time for making and serving case-made expired 15 days thereafter or on the 21st day of March, 1952. Title 22 § 1059 and Title 12, § 958, O.S.1951, and where the case-made was served on the county attorney on September 4, 1952, the appeal by case-made was not perfected as by law provided, and is ineffective. However, a defendant may at any time within the six months allowed by law perfect his appeal by petition in error and transcript under the provisions of Title 22, § 1060, O.S. 1951, when the transcript is properly certified by the clerk.
“A transcript of the record does not present for review errors which require a review of the evidence. It presents for consideration of the appellate court, only the information, minutes on arraignment, instructions given or refused, verdict and judgment and sentence.”

While this court in the Boyd case approved the rule limiting the consideration to the record proper, by way of dicta it went further to demonstrate that the appellant would not be entitled to prevail even if proper extensions of time had been obtained.

In the within case after the six months in which appeal must have been perfected, with all proper orders, etc., counsel after receipt of the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss, made application to the district court of Creek County for a retroactive order extending time in which to make, serve, settle and file casemade in this Court. The court on November 7, 1960 held that in that the appeal had been lodged in this Court on June 9, 1960 such thereby terminated jurisdiction to grant relief to defendant, which was sought under 12 O.S.A. § 962. Such was a correct ruling as the trial court lost jurisdiction of the case when appeal was filed in this Court.

Now, in the motion filed herein by defendant, he urges that this Court at this late date has authority to grant him an extension of time beyond the sixty days that he originally obtained from the trial court in which to make, serve, settle and file case-made in this Court, although the record was filed herein on June 9, 1960, but not within any extension granted by order of the trial court.

Counsel in affidavit attached to his motion states that his office is in Tulsa, the trial was in Sapulpa, Creek County; that he made arrangements with the court reporter and paid for a casemade and the reporter agreed to get any necessary extensions of time. The record was furnished, served, settled and filed in this Court without discovery of the failure to obtain extensions.

There is attached to the motion affidavit from the court reporter, James W. Garrett, as follows:

[656]*656“That on the 28th day of December, 1959, after motion for new trial had been overruled by the Court time was fixed by the Court of 60; 10 and 5 days within which to make and serve case-made. Thereupon, Mr. A. A. Berrin-ger, attorney for the defendant Lloyd Luman Harris, requested that I prepare a case-made for appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals of the State of Oklahoma, and was informed by me at that time that I would watch his time and not let same expire. I had always been of the opinion and had always prepared case-mades in criminal cases with the idea in mind that in cases involving felonies that the time to make and serve case-made was any time within the 6 months allowed by statute to perfect appeal.

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Related

McCoy v. State
1950 OK CR 137 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1950)
Boyd v. State
1953 OK CR 154 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Talliaferro v. State
1921 OK CR 195 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1921)
Zeligson v. State
1929 OK CR 154 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1929)
Roebuck v. State
1918 OK CR 14 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1918)
King v. State
1929 OK CR 353 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1929)
Crutchfield v. Forrester
1939 OK 89 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1939)
May v. State
1937 OK CR 176 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1937)
Adair v. State
1919 OK CR 134 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1919)
Hargrave v. Greer
1938 OK 302 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1938)
Harless v. State
1957 OK CR 22 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1957)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1961 OK CR 3, 358 P.2d 653, 1961 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-v-state-oklacrimapp-1961.