205 F.2d 839 - Hann v. Hawk — 205 F.2d 839

How this case has been cited

Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently October 2012

14 federal appellate · 1 district ·

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

¶1Robert A. Nelson, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Nebraska (Clarence S. Beck, Ally. Gen. of Nebraska, was with him on the brief), for appellant.

¶2Richard W. Smith, Miami, Okl., for ap-pellee.

¶3Before SANBORN, JOHNS EN. and RIDDICK, Circuit Judges.

¶4PER CURIAM.

¶5This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, granting the application of the appellee, Henry Hawk, for a writ of habeas corpus and releasing him from imprisonment in the Nebraska State Penitentiary, where he had been held under a sentence of life imprisonment based upon a State court conviction for murder.

¶6The appeal was argued at the November 1952 session of this Court, but, before it was *840decided, Henry Hawk died, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on April 21, 1953. We are urged by counsel to decide the case, notwithstanding the death, of Hawk.

¶7This case obviously became moot upon Hawk’s death, and this Court would not be justified in deciding questions which have become academic, no matter how interesting they may be. Following the established practice in dealing with a case such as this which became moot pending a decision of this Court on the merits, the judgment appealed from is vacated and the case is remanded with directions to dismiss it. See United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U.S. 36, 39, 71 S.Ct. 104,95 L.Ed. 36.