7 S.D. 382 | S.D. | 1895
Lead Opinion
The petitioner, William Walter Taylor, presented to this court his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging therein that he was illegally restrained of his liberty by the sheriff of Hughes county. The petitioner set forth in his petition a copy of the indictment, his plea thereto, and judgment of the circuit court of Hughes county. This court thereupon issued its writ of habeas corpus to the sheriff of said Hughes county, who in obedience to the command in said writ contained, brought before this court the said petitioner, and made return of the cause of his imprisonment and detention by him as sheriff of said county. From the petition and the return, which contain copies of the same indictment, plea, and judgment, it appears that the petitioner was indicted by the grand jury of Hughes county for the crime, as stated generally in the indictment, of “embezzlement.” To this indictment the prisoner pleaded guilty as charged in the indictment, and the petitioner was thereupon adjudged by the circuit court of the Sixth judicial circuit, in and for Hughes county, to be imprisoned in the state’s prison of the state of South Dakota for the period of five years. The learned counsel for the petitioner contend that the law under which the petitioner was indicted did not authorize the court to impose a sentence of imprisonment for a period exceeding two years, and that as the sentence imposed was for a period of five years the judgment is void, and the petitioner is entitled to be discharged from custody. The learned attorney general and state’s attorney insist that the court was authorized to impose a sentence of five years under the law. But they further insist that, if the sentence for five years was not authorized by law, the judgment is a legal and valid judgment for two years, and hence the petitioner would not be entitled to be discharged until the end of the two years, in any event.
There is an irreconcilable conflict in the authorities upon the question as to whether such a judgment is void as in the entire sentence, or only void as to the excess. After a careful consideration of the subject and an examination of nearly all the authorities cited, we are of the opinion that the weight of authority at the present time is that such a judgment is valid to the extent that the court had power or authority to sentence a defendant, and only void as to the excess, and that a defendant may lawfully be held under such a judgment for the period for which the court had power and authority to sentence him. This seems to have been the view taken by the supreme court of New York in Ex parte Sweatman, reported in 1 Cow. 144, decided in 1823, and that decision has since been generally followed in that state. People v. Liscomb; 60 N. Y. 559; People v. Jacobs, 66 N. Y. 8; People v. Baker, 89 N. Y. 460. The supreme court of Ohio has taken the same view. Ex parte Shaw, 7 Ohio St. 81; Ex parte Van Hagan, 25 Ohio St. 426. The Massachusetts supreme court holds a similar doctrine. Sennott's Case, 136 Mass. 489, 16 N. E. 448. In the latter case the court says: “The better rule seems to be that, where a court has jurisdiction of the person and of the offense, the imposition, by mistake, of a sentence in excess of what the law permits, is
The counsel for the petitioner have cited quite a number of decisions made by courts whose opinions are entitled to great com
We have omitted a number of cases cited by counsel for petitioner, for the r.ea.s.on that, in our view, they inyolye .entirely difT
The counsel for petitioner also cite Ex parte Rowland, 104 U. S. 604; In re Mills, 135 U. S. 263, 10 Sup. Ct. 762; Ex parte Nielsen, 131 U. S. 176, 9 Sup. Ct. 672; In re Coy, 127 U. S. 731, 8 Sup. Ct. 1263; Ex parte Seibold, 100 U. S. 371; In re Snow, 120 U. S. 274, 7 Sup. Ct. 556; Ex parte Wilson, 114 U. S. 417, 5 Sup. Ct. 935. But, in our view, these cases do not support the conten-, tion of counsel. In several of these cases the judgments were held void upon various grounds, and the defendants discharged, but none of them involved the question we are now considering, We do not deem it necessary to further discuss them. The cases of In re Petty, 22 Kan. 477, and In re Dill, 32 Kan. 668, 5 Pac. 39, cited by counsel, do not seem to us to support their contention. The headnote in the first case is as follows: “Where the court has jurisdiction of the person of the prisoner, and of the offense
Subsequently, in April of that year, the question was squarely decided, by a unanimous court, in U. S. v. Pridgeon, 14 Sup. Ct. 746. In that case the court, speaking through Mr. Justice Jackson, says: “Without undertaking to review the authorities in this and other courts, we think the principle is established that, where a court has jurisdiction of the person and of the offense, the imposition of a sentence in excess of what the law permits does not render the legal or authorized portion of the sentence void, but
In the case at bar, we see no difficulty in separating the sentence for two years, for which it is conceded the petitioner might have been sentenced, from the three years, assumed by us and claimed by counsel to be in excess of the time the petitioner could have been sentenced. Neither the supreme court of Wisconsin nor the supreme court of the United States seem to have discovered any difficulty in so separating the valid from the invalid portions of tbe sentence in Graham’s Case. The decision in re Pridgeon, read in connection with in re Graham, supra, fully interprets the meaning of that court in the use of the expression, “when such excess is separable, and may be dealt with without disturbing the valid portions of the sentence.” Ten years, says the court, in effect, In re Graham, is easily separable from the three years,— the void excess in the judgment. “When the ten years have expired,” says the court, “probably the court will order the prisoner’s discharge, but until then he has no right to the annulment of the entire judgment.” So we say here, when two years shall have expired, no other proceedings having been taken in the meantime to correct the judgment, if, upon examination, it should prove to be erroneous as to the term imposed, the petitioner would be in a position to ask for his discharge, But he is now held under legal process from a court of competent jurisdiction.
It is due to the learned counsel, both on the part of the petitioner and the state, to say that their exhaustive researches and
Concurrence Opinion
(concurring). I concur in this decision only in deference to what appears to be the weight of authority. This decision, and others which it follows, under cor stitutions and statutes like our own, seem to me to rest upon made ground, improvised by the courts, upon which to plausibly rest a ruling designed to prevent a failure of justice, and upon the ordinarily dangerous doctrine that the end justifies the means. Habeas corpus lies where a court whose act is the subject of inquiry “has exceeded the limit of its jurisdiction, either as to the matter, place, sum, or person.” Section 7841, Comp. Laws. The circuit court, although a court of general jurisdiction, gets its power to sentence in any case from the statute, and the same statute which gives the power also limits it. Its power to sentence is its jurisdiction to sentence, and I am unable to comprehend why a court which assumes to sentence for 20 years, in a case where its authority is limited to a sentence for 10 years, does not exceed “the limit of its jurisdiction” in that respect. The cases all concede that if a court imprison where it only has authority to fine, or fine where it only has authority to imprison, such judgment is not merely erroneous, but is absolutely void, because in excess of its jurisdiction; thus distinctly making the very judgment which the court rendered in a case in which it confessedly had jurisdiction of the person and the offense a controlling test of whether it kept within its jurisdiction or not, and teaching the doctrine that in determining whether a court had exceeded its jurisdiction the judgment which it renders is to be considered, as well as the other elements of person and offense, and that a court may have ample jurisdiction to try a defendant for the offense charged against him, but that it may exceed its jurisdiction in rendering a judgment which it had no legal power to render. But that the trial court has exceeded the limit
How does it help the matter to say that the court which pronounced the sentence is one of general jurisdiction? It surely is not general in the sense that its jurisdiction is broader than the law itself, or that the exercise of its power — its authority — may not be limited and circumscribed by law. The legislature has the
A man has power, under the statute, to make a verbal lease for one year. He makes one for two years, and asks the court to
My confidence in the logical and legal correctness of the views I have expressed is greatly strengthened by the deliberate declaration of the United States supreme court as to what the law is, in the Graham Case, 138 U. S. 461, 11 Sup. Ct. 363, referred to in Judge Corson’s opinion. It says, “It is undoubtedly the general rule that a j udgment rendered by a court in a criminal case must conform strictly to the statute, and that any variation from its provisions, either in the character or extent of the punishment inflicted renders the judgment absolutely void.” It is true, discharge was refused in that case, but it was denied upon the distinct ground “that under the law of Wisconsin [from which state the case came] a judgment in a criminal case which merely exceeds in the tirge of punishment prescribed by the sentence that which
A number of the highest state courts in the Union have also distinctly avowed the same views, and, probably recognizing their force, the legislatures of a number of states have provided by statute that no person can be discharged on habeas corpus until the time has expired for which he could legally have been detained. I think there should be such a statute here, and the courts left to their constitutional function of declaring what the law is, rather than what they think it ought to be. In other words, if further affirmative provisions of law are needed to prevent a failure of justice, or to accomplish any other desirable ends, the legislature, and not the courts, should supply them. While I do not in this case and shall not in any case hesitate to declare my own views upon any question before this court, I do now, as I have sometimes before, vote to follow the weight of adjudicated cases, rather thailjny own judgment,.less fully supported by au thorites,