State v. Burrell
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of two counts of aggravated forgery. The district court sentenced Appellant to twelve months in prison for each charge, to be served concurrently. Appellant appealed, challenging his convictions and sentence. Five days later, Appellant died. Appellant's counsel subsequently filed a motion to abate the prosecution ab initio. The court of appeals denied the motion and dismissed Appellant's direct appeal after deciding against adopting the abatement ab initio doctrine. The Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals' denial of the abatement motion and vacated Appellant's convictions, holding that when a defendant has taken an appeal from a final judgment of conviction in which no restitution was awarded and the accused is deprived of a decision on the merits because of his death, the prosecution should be abated ab initio. Remanded.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.