Skaug v. Sheehy

HEALY, Circuit Judge.

A Nevada statute, § 10068, Nevada Compiled Laws 1929, provides, in *715part: “Every person convicted of murder in the first degree shall suffer death or confinement in the state prison for life, at the discretion of the jury trying the same; * * *” The provision-was taken from the California Penal Code, § 190. Prior to its adoption by the Nevada legislature in 1907 the parent statute had been uniformly construed by the California courts as requiring the court to impose the death penalty on conviction of first degree murder where the jury did not itself fix the punishment.…