Murray v. State

1921 OK CR 148, 198 P. 973, 19 Okla. Crim. 322, 1921 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 60
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedAugust 3, 1921
DocketNo. A-3691.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1921 OK CR 148 (Murray 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
Murray v. State, 1921 OK CR 148, 198 P. 973, 19 Okla. Crim. 322, 1921 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 60 (Okla. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinion

BESSEY, J.

Charlie Murray was, by information filed in the district court of McIntosh county, January 19, 1918, charged with the murder of Jess Rogers on the 19th day of April, 1917, upon which charge he was tried and convicted of manslaughter in the first degree September 25, 1919, and his punishment fixed at imprisonment for twelve years in the state penitentiary. From this conviction, judgment, and sentence he appeals.

The circumstances leading up to this homicide occurred at the home of the defendant, Charlie Murray, in the country near Salem, in McIntosh county. Late in the afternoon of the day of the tragedy the defendant had returned from Henry-etta. The weather was rainy and disagreeable, and the defendant, upon reaching home, had disrobed and gone to bed and to sleep. There was a dance at the defendant’s house that night, and after the people had begun to gather and after the dancing had begun the defendant awoke and called to his wife to bring him a pair of dry socks. The wife thereupon went to a table and removing the defendant’s revolver from the table, hid it beneath some papers and then procured the socks, as requested.

Bert Nelson, a brother of the defendant’s wife, had been living with the defendant and his sister prior to this time, in their employment, and had been discharged or released from employment a short time previous. Soon after the defendant *324 arose on this night, he and Nelson engaged in an altercation or fist fight, after which Nelson ran out of the house. Immediately following, the defendant and his wife had a scuffle, in which both fell to the floor. After this some of the witnesses noticed that the defendant’s face had been scratched and was bleeding, and that the defendant’s wife had a knot or bruised place on her forehead. The defendant then took down a loaded shotgun from the place where it was kept and held it in his hands, until presently Jess Rogers came in at the door and demanded of the defendant that he put up the gun. The defendant refused, whereupon the parties cursed and swore at each other. While this was going on Jess Rogers started approaching the defendant, and the defendant ordered him to stop. The testimony here is conflicting; a half dozen or more witnesses for the state testified that Jess Rogers did stop or hesitate before the shooting began. The defendant fired one of the barrels of his shotgun into the floor near Jess Rogers’ feet, and Jess Rogers turned to retreat or get out and a second shot was fired, the load entering his left hip and side, and he fell over upon a couch nearby. The defendant then extracted the shells and placed two other loaded shells in the gun. From the effect of the shotgun wound in the hip and side the deceased died a week later.

The defendant claimed that the deceased was advancing upon him in a threatening manner and had one hand back of him or in his hip pocket. It subsequently developed that the deceased was unarmed, and it also developed from the testimony of both the state and the defendant that there had been no previous difficulty between the two men.

There is evidence tending to show that the brother-in-law, Bert Nelson, brought some Choctaw beer to the premises that evening. At any rate there was Choctaw beer there, but whether any of the parties to the quarrels were intoxicated or under the influence of liquor does not clearly appear. There is *325 testimony to the effect that after the shooting the deceased moaned and groaned on account of his physical suffering, and that he addressed the defendant and said, “Charlie, you killed me in cold blood", and that the defendant said to him, ■“Shut up, or I’ll finish the job." The testimony shows that after the shooting and before the arrival of the physician and others, who took charge of the wounded man, a curtain was hung up at the connecting door or opening into the other room, and the keg of Choctaw beer was removed from the room to a field or lot near the barn.

At the time of this trial the defendant and his wife were living separate and apart, and the wife did not testify. At the first trial the jury failed to agree, and at the second trial the defendant was convicted, as before stated.

The following assignments of error are urged in the brief:

First: The court erred in overruling the defendant’s motion for permission to withdraw his plea of not guilty for the purpose of filing a motion to dismiss the cause for want of prosecution, and in refusing to dismiss the case for want of prosecution.

Second. The court erred in overruling the defendant’s motion for a continuance.

Third. The court erred in permitting the witness Bluford Wills to testify as a witness against the defendant, for the reason that the name “Bluford Wills" did not appear on the list of witnesses served on the defendant.

Fourth. The court erred in overruling the defendant’s demurrer to the evidence and his motion for a directed verdict of not guilty.

1. The record discloses that a preliminary hearing was had before a justice of the peace on the 3d day of May, 1917, *326 and that the information was not filed until the 9th day of January, 1918, and that the August, 1917, term of court convened and adjourned between those two dates. Section 6095, R. L. 1910, provides:

“When a prisoner has been held for a public offense, if an indictment or information is not filed against him at the next term of court at which he is held to answer, the court must order the prosecution to be dismissed, unless good cause to the contrary be shown.”

The record shows that on February 4, 1918, the defendant filed his demurrer to the information and when the same was overruled, entered his plea of not guilty. The case was set for trial on February 8, 1918, and on that day, on application of counsel for defendant, the trial was continued until February 11, .1918. On that day the case came on for trial before the court and jury, and a mistrial resulted on account of the failure of the jury to agree. The case was then passed from time to time until February 5, 1919, when it was again set for trial and again continued, upon application of the defendant, over the term. On September 19, 1919, the defendant filed his motion to dismiss the action for want of prosecution, which was but a few days before the ease was set for trial.

It appears from the record that the defendant and his counsel were not anxious for a speedy trial, and that he and his counsel had an understanding with the prosecuting attorney that the case should not be tried at the August, 1917, term of court; and that the reason that the same was not filed before this term of court was because the county attorney had inadvertently or for some reason misplaced the information. Under this state of the record, it would seem that the court did not abuse his discretion in refusing the defendant to withdraw his plea and in refusing to dismiss the case for want of prosecution. The constitutional and statutory right to a speedy trial is one that may be waived, and the court holds *327 that under the circumstances in this ease the defendant did waive his right to have the cause dismissed for want of prosecution. Ex parte Hudson, 3 Okla. Cr. 403, 106 Pac. 540; Dalton v. State, 6 Okla. Cr. 89, 116 Pac.

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Related

Frank v. Frank
62 Pa. D. & C.2d 102 (Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas, 1973)
Daniels v. State
1940 OK CR 2 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1940)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1921 OK CR 148, 198 P. 973, 19 Okla. Crim. 322, 1921 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 60, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murray-v-state-oklacrimapp-1921.