The PEOPLE v. Bragg

In 1940 the defendant, Oscar Bragg, was tried for murder before a jury which found him guilty and fixed his sentence at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of 199 years. He filed a post-conviction petition in 1949 in which he charged that his appointed counsel was incompetent, that negroes were systematically excluded from the jury before which he was tried, and that after the jury had retired the trial judge, in his absence, gave them additional instructions as to the number of years he would be required to serve under various sentences. The trial court heard evidence on these issues…