Smith v. United States

RUDKIN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction for the crime of rape. It appears from the reeor'd that, some time after the submission of the case, the jury returned into court for further instructions as to their duty in fixing the penalty. In response to this request, the court correctly informed them that they, in effect, fixed the punishment, that, if they returned a verdict without the qualifying words, “without capital punishment,” the court was bound to sentence the defendant to death, and that, if they qualified their verdict by adding the qualifying words, the…