State v. Carter

WERNICK, Justice.

In December of 1971 a Superior Court (Lincoln County) jury had found the defendant, Ralph A. Carter, guilty of felonious homicide punishable as murder. Defendant had seasonably appealed from the judgment of conviction. While the appeal, duly perfected, was pending for oral argument before the Law Court, the defendant died (on July 16, 1972).

Learning of defendant’s death, the State filed a motion in the Law Court for dismissal of the appeal. The ground of the motion was that the death of the defendant

“render [s] moot . . . [the] issues raised by him in his appeal”

and

“ . . .…