Ross

The defendant was convicted of murder and sentenced to be hanged. On appeal to the supreme court, the judgment was affirmed and the cause remanded to the superior court for further proceedings. The defendant was thereupon brought before that court, and his various objections being overruled, Friday, the tenth day of January, 1902, was designated as the date for carrying the sentence into execution. From this order the defendant immediately appealed, and his request for a certificate of probable cause for the appeal having been denied by the trial judge, he applies to me, as one of the justices of the supreme court, for a certificate that in my opinion there is probable cause for his appeal. His object in making this application is, of course, to secure a stay of the execution until his appeal can be heard, and he assumes that my certificate would have that effect. There is, however, grave doubt whether this assumption is well founded, and reliance upon it might prove to have been a fatal mistake. The statutory provision relating to certificates of probable cause is found in section 1243 of the Penal Code, which in terms embraces only appeals from judgments, and-does not embrace…