35 Neb. 499 | Neb. | 1892
This is an application by the above named petitioner for a writ of habeas corpus against James P. Mallon, warden of the state penitentiary.
It appears that on the 18th day of April, 1890, the petitioner pleaded guilty in the Otoe county district court to an information charging him with the crime of burglary, and, on the same day, was sentenced to The state industrial school, at Kearney, as under the age of eighteen years. He was duly committed to said industrial school, in pursuance of said sentence, on the 28th day of April, 1890, where he was kept and confined until the 15th day of the following month.
On the 10th day of May, 1890, the district court of Otoe
The question presented by the record before us is, Did the district court have the power or jurisdiction to vacate and set aside the first sentence, at the same term of court at which it was rendered, but after relator had suffered part of the punishment thereby imposed, and pronounce a second sentence in the same ease? If the entry of the last judgment was a mere error, which would subject it to reversal by this court upon a petition in error, then the petitioner is not entitled to his discharge upon this proceeding, for it is firmly settled in this state that habeas corpus is not a proper proceeding to review a judgment in a criminal case.
By section 5, chapter 75, Compiled Statutes, authority is conferred upon a court of record of this state to commit any minor, under the age of eighteen years, to the state industrial school, who has been found guilty in such court of any crime except murder or manslaughter committed under the age of sixteen years. This court has decided that the question of the age of the accused is one of fact to be decided by the trial court, and its finding can be re
' The power of a court to revise, vacate, or modify a judgment in a criminal case, or substitute another for the original judgment is exceedingly doubtful in this state, since we
In re Mason, supra, the petitioner was convicted of larceny and sentenced to the state reform school of Michigan, as under sixteen years of age. At the time of his sentence he was in fact, of the age of twenty years. After he had been committed to the reform .school, the court sentencing him ordered him brought back from that institution that his age might be inquired into and ascertained, for the purpose of determining whether he should not be sentenced to the penitentiary. In pursuance of said order the petitioner was removed from the reform school and committed.to the jail of the county, to await the action of the court. On an application for his discharge by habeas corpus, the supreme court of that state say: “A prisoner having been sentenced and committed to the reform school, as under sixteen years of age, the court sentencing him cannot, on the ground of mistake as to the prisoner’s age, proceed to give a new sentence. The sentence is not made void by such mistake.”
In Brown v. Rice, supra, the prisoner had been legally convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail for six months. After serving nineteen days of his sentence, he was recalled into court and sentenced on the same indictment and conviction to be imprisoned • in the state prison for the period of three years. It was held that the court had no power to recall him from jail and impose another sentence; The other authorities above cited are equally in point.
The first sentence being legal, we would remand the petitioner to the state industrial school, were.it not for the fact that he is now over the age of twenty-one years, and his sentence has therefore expired. It follows that the petitioner must be discharged.
Writ allowed.