Stubbs v. State
| Court | Supreme Court of Tennessee |
| Writing for the Court | BURNETT |
| Citation | 393 S.W.2d 150,216 Tenn. 567,20 McCanless 567 |
| Decision Date | 02 June 1965 |
| Parties | , 216 Tenn. 567 William Charles STUBBS v. STATE of Tennessee. |
Page 150
v.
STATE of Tennessee.
Rehearing Denied Aug. 16, 1965.
[216 Tenn. 568]
Page 151
James Mitchell, David Torbett, Kingsport, David S. Haynes, Bristol, for plaintiff in error.George F. McCanless, Atty. Gen., Marne S. Matherne, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, for the State.
BURNETT, Chief Justice.
Stubbs was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to confinement in the State penitentiary for a period of twenty (20) years and one (1) day. From this conviction he has seasonably appealed. Counsel representing Stubbs were appointed by the court and have done an excellent piece of work representing this man. For this representation this Court extends its sincere thanks.
Page 152
This is the second trial of Stubbs. On July 14, 1954, he was convicted on four indictments of murder in the first degree of a Mrs. Holm, assault with intent to commit murder in the first degree upon her husband, and the kidnapping of two persons named. In this first trial he was sentenced to 99 years and 21 years for the murder and assault, both to run concurrently, and to not less than 2 years nor more than 10 years for the two charges of kidnapping, both to run concurrently with each other [216 Tenn. 570] but consecutively with the sentences for the murder and the assault. No motion for a new trial was filed and no appeal taken from the 1954 sentence. The trial court appointed a reporter in this 1954 trial, but her notes were not transcribed until February 20, 1964.
Stubbs filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, and upon such hearing the United States District Judge held that the 1954 judgment was null and void and ordered the petitioner to be released and remanded to the custody of the Sheriff of Sullivan County 'for further prosecution by the State of Tennessee,' if it so desired. The present case was the trial on this remand.
A number of insistences are made on this appeal, the first being that the trial judge in the present trial should have quashed the indictments because the former judgments of conviction, which have been rendered null and void, amount to a violation of Stubbs' constitutional right to a speedy trial, which has been delayed for ten years, and, too, that it was error for the trial judge herein to admit in evidence the reading of a certain portion of the transcript of the testimony taken in 1954 of Mr. Holm, who at the present time is in Ekskogen, Sweden, and the testimony of his son, who gave certain testimony with reference to what certain witnesses would say.
At the second trial the State produced some fifteen witnesses who testified to the effect that Mrs. Holm died of gunshot wounds on July 11, 1954, and her husband was shot at the same time. The Holms were driving their car from their home in Texas through Tennessee and on up east as the first part of their journey for a visit to Sweden. They first encountered Stubbs at a roadside [216 Tenn. 571] park on Highway 11-W between Rutledge and Rogersville, where they had stopped to eat lunch.
According to the testimony of Stubbs he forced the couple at pistol point to get in the back seat of their automobile and he, with his gun in his left hand at times and with the gun on the front seat at other times, drove their automobile through Rogersville, Kingsport and Blountville, Tennessee. At a place on Highway 11-W about six miles west of Bristol, Tennessee, the plaintiff in error testified:
'It seems awful strange, but everything just seemed to be awful still and I remember a tree and it just seemed to come up just like that in a clear focus, but in a reddish haze. I mean there was no pain or nothing * * * I felt a sharp pain that seemed to start in my head and go all the way down through me and I reached up with both hands and heard this loud roar, bang * * * Stuff started down my face and down my shirt and all that I could think of that he has got the gun * * * I just went outside through the car door (onto the highway) * * * I got up and started running to get away from that area * * * (because) He still had the gun.'
Stubbs admitted that a man pointed his finger at him and said, 'That is the one,' while he was in a hospital room, but he didn't know him. He denied any knowledge that Mrs. Holm was dead or that Mr. Holm was injured and denied shooting Mrs. Holm.
The bullet entering the body of Mrs. Holm severed the spinal cord. Mr. Holm suffered two bullet wounds, one just below the left eye and another under the nose. One bullet lodged in the neck and the other
Page 153
in the pharynx. [216 Tenn. 572] Both bullets were removed. A 6-shot .32 calibre Smith and Wesson revolver with blood on it was found on the floor board of the back seat of the car.Three Highway Patrolmen and a Police Investigator of Bristol testified that they were present when Stubbs was taken to the hospital room occupied by Holm in the evening of...
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State v. Turner
...(footnote omitted). 67 Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-23-101(b); see Marsh v. Henderson, 221 Tenn. 42, 424 S.W.2d 193 (1968); Stubbs v. State, 216 Tenn. 567, 575-76, 393 S.W.2d 150, 154 68 See State v. Mahler, 735 S.W.2d 226 (Tenn.1987); Mintz v. State, 808 S.W.2d 459, 462 (Tenn.Crim.App.1990), per. a......
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State v. Draper, C
...requirements of the statute or rule mandatory. See Blankenship v. State, 223 Tenn. 158, 165, 443 S.W.2d 442, 445 (1969); Stubbs v. State, 216 Tenn. 567, 576, 393 S.W.2d 150, 154 (1965); State v. Dulsworth, 781 S.W.2d 277, 289 (Tenn.Crim.App.1989); State v. Gauldin, 737 S.W.2d 795, 798 (Tenn......
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State v. Rickman & Groseclose, W1999-01744-CCA-R3-CD
...was tried." Tenn. Code Ann. 40-23-101(c) (1997); see also Marsh v. Henderson, 424 S.W.2d 193, 195 (Tenn. 1968); Stubbs v. State, 393 S.W.2d 150, 154 (Tenn. Concededly, a defendant need not necessarily present affirmative proof of prejudice in order to establish a speedy trial claim. Simmons......
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Emory v. Memphis City Sch. Bd. of Educ., W2014–01293–SC–R11–CV
...304 S.W.3d 812, 819 (Tenn. 2010) (citing Gray v. Cullom Mach ine , Tool & Die, Inc., 152 S.W.3d 439, 446 (Tenn. 2004) ; Stubbs v. State, 216 Tenn. 567, 393 S.W.2d 150, 154 (1965) ; Sanford Realty Co. v. City of Knoxville, 172 Tenn. 125, 110 S.W.2d 325, 327 (1937). "Notwithstanding this gene......
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State v. Rickman & Groseclose, W1999-01744-CCA-R3-CD
...was tried." Tenn. Code Ann. 40-23-101(c) (1997); see also Marsh v. Henderson, 424 S.W.2d 193, 195 (Tenn. 1968); Stubbs v. State, 393 S.W.2d 150, 154 (Tenn. Concededly, a defendant need not necessarily present affirmative proof of prejudice in order to establish a speedy trial claim. Si......
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State v. Draper, No. C
...requirements of the statute or rule mandatory. See Blankenship v. State, 223 Tenn. 158, 165, 443 S.W.2d 442, 445 (1969); Stubbs v. State, 216 Tenn. 567, 576, 393 S.W.2d 150, 154 (1965); State v. Dulsworth, 781 S.W.2d 277, 289 (Tenn.Crim.App.1989); State v. Gauldin, 737 S.W.2d 795, 798 (Tenn......
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State v. Turner
...(footnote omitted). 67 Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-23-101(b); see Marsh v. Henderson, 221 Tenn. 42, 424 S.W.2d 193 (1968); Stubbs v. State, 216 Tenn. 567, 575-76, 393 S.W.2d 150, 154 68 See State v. Mahler, 735 S.W.2d 226 (Tenn.1987); Mintz v. State, 808 S.W.2d 459, 462 (Tenn.Crim.App.1990), per. a......
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Mancusi v. Stubbs 8212 237, No. 71
...of the events, and was again convicted. This conviction was in due course affirmed by the Supreme Court of Tennessee. Stubbs v. State, 216 Tenn. 567, 393 S.W.2d 150 (1965). Respondent has challenged the present second-offender sentence that was imposed upon him by the New York courts on the......