11 So. 2d 578 | Fla. | 1943
On July 27, 1942, Stafford Allison presented his petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the Honorable Harry N. Sandler, then an acting judge of the Circuit Court of Palm Beach County, Florida. The petitioner alleged that he was being unlawfully deprived of his liberties by the Sheriff of Palm Beach County under an indictment then pending against him charging the crime of murder in the first degree; that the petitioner was innocent of the charge, and his unlawful *275 detention consisted largely of a denial of the right to bail because the proof against him was not evident, nor the presumption great. The petition was sworn to and the sufficiency of material allegations of the petition was not made an issue by the parties or considered in the lower court.
The lower court entered an order denying the petition, and the reasons for so doing were that the petitioner, on July 27, 1942, was being confined in the State Prison at Raiford, Florida, under a judgment and sentence for a period of fifteen years and had only served one year of the fifteen year sentence when the petition for the writ was presented in the lower court; and if the court should issue the writ and a hearing be given and an appearance bond allowed, the petitioner could not be discharged from custody because of the sentence on a different charge then being served by the petitioner, and the hearing would be fruitless and no lawful purpose served. An appeal from the order was perfected here.
The writ of habeas corpus is a high prerogative writ of ancient origin designed to obtain immediate relief from unlawful imprisonment without sufficient legal reasons. Essentially, it is a writ of inquiry and is issued to test the reasons or grounds of restraint and detention. The writ is venerated by all free and liberty loving people and recognized as a fundamental guaranty and protection of their right of liberty. Section
It is not contended that the petitioner's imprisonment in the State Prison at Raiford under the fifteen year sentence is unlawful, but that the denial of the writ under the conditions and circumstances set out in the aforesaid order deprives him of a right vouchsafed to him by the State and Federal Constitutions. Counsel cites as authority for his *276
contention Section 9 of the Declaration of Rights of the Florida Constitution; Ex parte McDaniel,
The answer, in part, to the contention supra, is the case of State ex rel. Hamilton v. Mayo,
The judgment of the lower court is hereby affirmed.
BROWN, C. J., TERRELL, and THOMAS, JJ., concur.