67 So. 929 | La. | 1915
Willis Burnett was arrested by the defendant sheriff upon a warrant issued by the Governor upon a requisition by the Governor of Texas. He sued out a writ of habeas corpus before the respondent judge, on the following grounds:
(1) That the warrant upon which he has been arrested is insufficient, in that, instead of reciting that it has issued upon the production of the copy of an indictment or affidavit, as is required by the act of Congress, it merely recites that it has issued “upon the production of the requisite evidence to justify the same, and which is on file in the office of the Secretary of State.”
(2) That sections 1038, 1039, 1040, and 1041 of the Revised Statutes of this state provide the exclusive mode of proceeding for making arrests in cases of extradition, and that therefore the Governor was without authority to issue said warrant, and the same is in consequence null.
(3) That the prisoner is a minor, and therefore entitled to the benefit of the laws of this state for the trial of delinquent children, and that if delivered over to the authorities of the state of Texas, he would be tried as an adult.
Perhaps if, instead of stating as a legal conclusion that the evidence produced was such as is required by the law, and that it was on file in the office of the Secretary of State, the warrant in this case had tracked the statute and recited that an indictment or affidavit had been produced, the situation would have appeared more satisfactory to the legal mind; but the warrant, such as it is, gives sufficient information, we think, to the sheriff and the prisoner, by the recitals it contains, of the cause of its issuance, namely, that it is issued on the requisition of the Governor of Texas, on the production of the requisite evidence to justify the same, which is on file in the office of the Secretary of State, and shows that the prisoner stands charged with the crime of burglary in the county of Tarrant, state of Texas.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the judgment of the respondent judge ordering the discharge of the prisoner, Willis E. Burnett, be set aside and annulled, and that the said application for habeas corpus be dismissed at the cost of the said Willis E. Burnett.