Mathis v. Paul

PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS

MADDOX, Justice.

Ben T. Mathis petitions this Court to require the Honorable Eris F. Paul, as Judge of the Circuit Court of Coffee County, to set aside an order entered by him which sentenced Mathis to life imprisonment in lieu of the sentence of death originally imposed upon him in 1964 upon his conviction for first degree murder.

In the murder trial the evidence presented by the state was overwhelming in its tendencies showing that Mathis, recently escaped from a convict camp, entered the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Morgan on the night of June 23-24, and in cold…