Actually he died *after* the case came to the Supreme Court, but just before they released their ruling. He was just a no show, as was his former co-defendant Layton, and their attorney, Suderson, they didn't even file a brief, let alone show up for the oral arguments. Layton later pleaded guilty to transporting the shotgun and got probation from the same judge who had thrown out the original indictment. Surprisingly he managed to serve out the probation successfully.
see Compilation of Miller Documents.
From the above link:
Alas, Jack Miller's end was an unhappy one. The Southwest American reported on April 6, 1939, that Miller's body had been found in the "nearly dry" bed of Little Spencer creek, nine miles southwest of Chelesa, Oklahoma. He had been shot four times with a .38. Miller's ".45 calibre pistol," from which he had fired three shots in his defense, was found near his body. He was forty years old.
Little was reported regarding Frank Layton. He pleaded guilty to the charge of transporting a sawed-off shotgun after the Supreme Court decision and was placed on five year's probation by Judge Heartsill Ragon on January 8, 1940. Layton was discharged from supervision on January 29, 1944.
The decision was released on May 15, 1939, but oral arguments were heard (or more property the government presentation was made) on March 30, 1939, *just before* the government's oral arguments were presented to the Supreme Court.
Notice too that the government made the same appeal to English Common Law, which allowed restrictions of all sorts, rather than the Constitution of the United States, which supersedes the Common law when their is a conflict.
You know what’s the scariest thing? If Robert Bork was a Supreme Court justice, the decision would have been 5 - 4 with the liberals winning and Bork providing the winning vote for them.