People v. Righthouse

The appellant in this ease pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with the crime of murder committed on May 12, 1937. Upon taking evidence concerning the circumstances of its commission, the court found it to be murder in the first degree without mitigating circumstances and judgment was imposed that the defendant suffer the penalty of death by being hanged. Upon appeal the defendant contends that at the time he committed the crime the statute prescribing hanging as the punishment for murder had been repealed and a new statute providing for execution by gas had not yet gone into effect.…