Allen v. Georgia

Citations

• 166 U.S. 138
• 17 S. Ct. 525
• 41 L. Ed. 949
• 1897 U.S. LEXIS 2014

Syllabus

<p>After a person had been convicted in a state court of murder, he sued out a writ of error from the Supreme Court of the State. On the day assigned for its hearing it appeared from affidavits that the accused had escaped from jail, and was at that time a fugitive from justice. The court thereupon ordered the writ of error dismissed, unless he should within sixty days surrender himself or be recaptured, and when that time passed without either happening, the writ was dismissed. He was afterwards recaptured, and resentenced to death, whereupon he sued out this writ of error, assigning.as error that the dismissal of his writ of error by the Supreme Court was a denial of due process of law. Held, that the dismissal of the writ of error by the Supreme Court of the State was justified by the abandonment of his case by the plaintiff in the writ.</p>