Bernard G. House v. United States

Appellant Bernard G. House was charged in an indictment filed by the Grand Jury in the District Court for the District of Alaska, Fourth Judicial Division, with the crime of murder in the first degree. He was tried by a jury, was convicted of murder in the first degree, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The conviction and sentence occurred prior to January 3, 1959, the date of the admission of Alaska into the United States. An appeal was timely taken to this Court which has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

The occurrence took place in the early morning hours of May 21, 1957, in a bar in Fairbanks, Alaska, called the “Esquire Club,” which was run by a man named Jack Perry and a woman named Eva Beree. The evidence showed that appellant and a friend of his, one Dean Scott, were shaking dice at the bar for drinks and later for money. At one time appellant left the bar to go to his home nearby for the purpose of getting more money. An argument developed between appellant and Scott on one side and the bar owner, Perry, on the other. Witnesses differed as to the cause of this argument, some contending that Perry had objection to the gambling and profanity of the…