121 Ark. 537 | Ark. | 1915
The petitioner is confined in the State Hospital for Nervous Diseases (originally known as the Arkansas State Lunatic Asylum) under a certificate of the judge of the circuit court of Franklin County, where he was tried, according to the substance of the certificate, on a charge of murder and acquitted on his plea of insanity. He sued out a writ of habeas corpus 'before the chancellor of the Pulaski Chancery Court against the superintendent of said institution and sought to be discharged from custody under the writ on the ground that he was unlawfully detained. The chancellor sustained the State’s demurrer to the petition and made an order remanding the petitioner to the custody of the superintendent of the State Hospital. The order of the chancellor has been brought before us by a writ of certiorari for review.
The contention is that the circuit judge was without juris'diction to issue a certificate of commitment to the asylum, land that the statute conferring that authority is void because it is in conflict with the provisions of the Constitution which vests in the probate courts of the State ‘ ‘ exclusive original jurisdiction in matters relative to * * * persons of unsound mind and their estates.” The State’s institution for the care of persons of unsound mind was first authorized by the act of the General Assembly of 1873, and it was constructed and has been maintained since that time. The act of April 13,1893, relates to the confinement in the asylum of persons who have been ¡acquitted of crime on a plea of insanity, or who are found to be insane during the pendency of the ¡charge. Three of the sections of that act read as follows:
“ See. 4204. It ¡shall be the duty of the .superintendent of the State Insane Asylum to admit into said asylum, upon the ¡certificate of the judge before whom the case is pending upon presentment or indictment, ¡any person that has been, or that may hereafter be, acquitted upon a plea ¡of insanity of the charge made in said presentment or indictment, or ¡any person who has been, or may hereafter be, ¡adjudged insane, as provided by law where such person has been held upon presentment or indictment and can not be tried because of such insanity.”
“Sec. 4206. Any person admitted to the said asylum under the provisions of this act, shall be there and then kept until restored to reason, which shall be ascertained as in case of other insane persons in ¡said asylum.
“Sec. 4207. When any person confined in said asylum under the provisions of this act shall be ascertained to be restored 'to reason, it shall be the duty of the said superintendent to give notice thereof to the sheriff of the county in which the indictment or presentment against such person is pending, and said ¡sheriff shall forthwith proceed to said asylum and take such person into his custody, and convey him to the jail of said county, or hold him in custody until admitted to bail or otherwise discharged according to law.” Kirby’s Digest, § § 4204-6-7.
The chancellor was therefore correct in refusing to discharge the petitioner, and the writ of certiorari is quashed and the judgment of the chancellor on the habeas corpus proceeding is affirmed.