Bland v. State

Decision Date25 May 1961
Docket Number6 Div. 678
Citation272 Ala. 215,130 So.2d 385
PartiesErnest George BLAND, allas 'Trigger-Phil' v. STATE of Alabama.
CourtAlabama Supreme Court

Ernest George Bland, pro se.

MacDonald Gallion, Atty, Gen., for the State.

SIMPSON, Justice.

The appellant was adjudged guilty and was sentenced to a term of years in the state penitentiary on January 17, 1961. Notice of appeal was given on the same day.

The State of Alabama by Honorable MacDonald Gallion, Attorney General, has filed a motion to dismiss the appeal because the record and transcript of the evidence were not filed in this Court within the time prescribed by law. We entertain the view that the motion is well taken.

Revised Rule 37 of this Court provides as pertinent that in such a case the transcript of the record shall be filed in this Court within sixty days after it has been established in the court below. No transcript of the evidence was ever established in the court below. The record proper without the transcript of the evidence was not filed in this Court until March 27, 1961, more than sixty days after it should have been filed and no extension of time for filing was ordered by the trial judge, as is provided in the rule.

We are, therefore, constrained to hold that the motion of the State must be sustained.

We, of course, are familiar with the case of Griffin v. People of State of Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891, but are not sure of the exact meaning of the sum total of the opinions in the case or their impact upon such a state as Alabama, which has no department or institution with funds from which this Court or any other court could order payment of the expenses of the transcript of the evidence for the appellant. Perhaps Illinois had such a statutory system whereby the Supreme Court of the United States could justify its judgment in ordering the Supreme Court of Illinois to have a transcript prepared for defendant Griffin. But Alabama has no such statute and there is no fund in any department of the state from which such expenses can be paid. Of consequence of which we cannot, and will not, order anyone to prepare a transcript of the evidence for this appellant.

True, Alabama does have the automatic appeal statute which requires the State to pay for the transcript of the evidence in death cases, but this is the only instance in which such appellate review is ordered. Appellate review is a matter of statutory or constitutional grace and the mere fact...

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5 cases
  • Hubbard v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • 13 de maio de 1986
    ...a free transcript of his trial. In dismissing the appeal because the record was not timely filed the Court noted: "Bland v. State, 272 Ala. 215, 130 So.2d 385 (1961). "In 1961 the Alabama Legislature formally responded to the rights announced in Griffin with the passage of what is now Secti......
  • Hubbard v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • 1 de maio de 1979
    ...of which we can not, and will not, order anyone to prepare a transcript of the evidence for this appellant." Bland v. State, 272 Ala. 215, 130 So.2d 385 (1961). In 1961 the Alabama Legislature formally responded to the rights announced in Griffin with the passage of what is now Sections 12-......
  • Bland v. State of Alabama
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit
    • 21 de março de 1966
    ...twenty-two years imprisonment. His appeal from that judgment of conviction was dismissed as having been filed too late. Bland v. State, 1961, 272 Ala. 215, 130 So.2d 385. The Supreme Court of Alabama dismissed his petition for leave to file a petition for writ of error coram nobis,1 holding......
  • Shuttlesworth v. State, 6 Div. 901
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Appeals
    • 11 de dezembro de 1962
    ...also Ex parte Smith, 265 Ala. 60, 89 So.2d 694, and Ex parte Thomas, 270 Ala. 411, 118 So.2d 738. On a purported appeal, Bland v. State, 272 Ala. 215, 130 So.2d 385, the record was stricken. Afterwards when an original application for leave to proceed in the circuit court was submitted, the......
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