174 A. 295 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1934
William F. Miller was indicted in the court of quarter sessions of Erie County for sodomy. The indictment contained two counts. He was convicted *333 generally and sentenced on May 15, 1915 to an indefinite term in the Western Penitentiary, with a maximum of twenty years and a minimum of fifteen years. See Act of June 19, 1911, P.L. 1055, sec. 6, then in force.
In this petition for writ of habeas corpus he contends that the sentence so imposed was illegal and void for two reasons: (1) That the two counts grew out of the same transaction and were committed at the same time, and constituted, in effect, one and the same offense, warranting the imposition of but one sentence: Com. ex rel. Holinko v. Ashe,
The first contention of the relator is without merit. An examination of the indictment shows that each count charged a separate and distinct method of unnatural intercourse. Though committed on the same day they were separate and distinct crimes, each justifying a separate and distinct sentence: Com. v. Birdsall,
(2) The second contention must be sustained. While the court might have legally sentenced the prisoner to a maximum term of ten years and a minimum of seven and a half years on the first count, and a maximum of ten years and a minimum of seven and a half years on the second count, and directed that the sentence on the second count should begin at the expiration of the first, it did not do so. It lumped the *334
sentences into one, with a maximum of twenty years and a minimum of fifteen. This was illegal: Halderman's Petition, supra, p. 4. The sentence is not void but voidable: Halderman's Case,
This would require the discharge of the relator, for he has already served the maximum term of ten years, were it not for the fact that at the time he committed the offenses charged in the indictment in this case, he was on parole from the Western Penitentiary for prior sentences amounting to 29 years, on conviction for several charges of rape, and when he was returned to the penitentiary there remained an unserved portion thereof of eighteen years, six months and eighteen days, which under section 10 of the Act of June 19, 1911, P.L. 1055, then in force, he was required to serve after the expiration of the term for which he was sentenced under the indictment for sodomy, in this case. The detainer and remand under the Act of June 19, 1911, supra, will take effect as of May 15, 1925, the date of the expiration of the maximum sentence of *335 ten years for sodomy, which had been completed when the petition for the writ of habeas corpus was filed.
The rule to show cause is, except as above stated, discharged.