Mills v. Benton

LAVENDER, Vice Chief Justice:

Eloyd Mills (Mills), plaintiff, was imprisoned on a life sentence for murder in 1939. In early 1974, the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma entered judgment finding Mills’s constitutional rights, both federal and state, had been violated in that criminal proceeding. This federal decision required Mills to be retried or released. He was released.

After Mills’s release from prison, he brings this action with the’ State of Oklahoma (State) as the principal defendant. Trial court sustained the general demurrers of defendants lodged…