John Rooney v. State of North Dakota
Decision Date | 23 January 1905 |
Docket Number | No. 123,123 |
Citation | 196 U.S. 319,49 L.Ed. 494,25 S.Ct. 264 |
Parties | JOHN ROONEY, Piff. in Err. , v. STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This writ of error brings in question a final judgment of the supreme court of the state of North Dakota, affirming the judgment of an inferior court of that state, by which, pursuant to the verdict of a jury, the plaintiff in error, John Rooney, was sentenced to death for the crime of murder in the first degree.
The sole question upon which the plaintiff in error seeks the judgment of this court, and the only one that will be noticed, is whether the statute under which he was sentenced was ex post facto, and therefore unconstitutional in its application to his case. His counsel agrees that the judgment must stand if the statute be constitutional.
Before, as well as after, the passage of the statute under which the sentence was pronounced, the punishment prescribed by the state for murder in the first degree was death or imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. N. D. Rev. Codes, 1889, § 7068.
By the statutes in force at the time of the commission of the offense, August 26th, 1902, as well as when the verdict of guilty was rendered, it was provided that when a judgment of death is rendered the judge must deliver to the sheriff of the county a warrant stating the conviction and judgment, and appointing a day on which the judgment is to be executed, 'which must not be less than three months after the day in which judgment is entered, and not longer than six months thereafter' (§ 8305); that when there was no jail within the county, or whenever the officer having in charge any person under judgment of death deemed the jail of the county where the conviction was had insecure, unfit, or unsafe for any cause, he could confine the convicted person in the jail of any other convenient county of the state (§ 8320); that the judgment of death should be executed within the walls or yard of the jail of the county in which the conviction was had, or within some convenient inclosure within such county (§ 8321); and that judgment of death must be executed by the sheriff of the county where the conviction was had, or by his deputy, one of whom, at least, must be present at the execution. N. D. Rev. Codes, 1899, pp. 1622, 1623.
The sentence of death was pronounced March 31st, 1903. Prior to that date, namely, on March 9th, 1903, the legislature—without changing the law prescribing death or imprisonment for life as the punishment for the crime of murder in the first degree—passed an act providing that all executions should take place at the penitentiary, and amending certain sections of the Revised Codes of 1899. By that act it was provided:
N. D. Laws, 1903, chap. 99, p. 119.
By the sentence it was ordered that the accused be conveyed to the state penitentiary, 'there to be kept in close confinement until October the 9th, 1903,' and, within an inclosure in that building to be erected for the purpose, be hung by the warden of the penitentiary, or, in...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Commonwealth v. Story
... ... Cal.Rptr. 633, 588 P.2d 773 (1979), Idaho, State v ... Lindquist, 99 Idaho 766, 589 P.2d 101 (1979), ... 302] standards as in Kalck ) ... and Rooney v. North Dakota, 196 U.S. 319, 25 S.Ct. 264, ... 49 L.Ed ... ...
-
State v. Coleman
...force at the time a crime was committed cannot be regarded as Ex post facto with reference to that crime. Rooney v. North Dakota (1905), 196 U.S. 319, 325, 25 S.Ct. 264, 49 L.Ed. 494; Calder, 3 U.S. at Section 12-201, R.C.M.1947, now section 1-2-109 MCA, states that no law is "retroactive" ......
-
Warden, Lewisburg Penitentiary v. Marrero 8212 831
...a 'greater or more severe punishment than was prescribed by law at the time of the . . . offense,' Rooney v. North Dakota, 196 U.S. 319, 325, 25 S.Ct. 264, 265, 49 L.Ed. 494 (1905) (emphasis added). See Love v. Fitzharris, 460 F.2d 382 (CA9 1972); cf. Lindsey v. Washington, 301 U.S. 397, 57......
-
Weaver v. Graham
...356 (1867). See Lindsey v. Washington, 301 U.S. 397, 401, 57 S.Ct. 797, 799, 81 L.Ed. 1182 (1937); Rooney v. North Dakota, 196 U.S. 319, 324-325, 25 S.Ct. 264, 265-266, 49 L.Ed. 494 (1905); In re Medley, 134 U.S. 160, 171, 10 S.Ct. 384, 387, 33 L.Ed. 835 (1890); Calder v. Bull, 3 Dall. 386,......