51 S.C. 176 | S.C. | 1897
The defendant in this case having been convicted in the Court of General Sessions for Beaufort County of the offense of obstructing the track of the Charleston and Savannah Railway Company, in violation of the provisions of section 123 of the Criminal Statutes (2 Rev. Stat., p. 305), was sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary for the term of ten years and one month, and was committed to the jail of Beaufort County, pending his appeal from said judgment, where he now is. The prisoner applied for and obtained a writ of habeas corpus, for the purpose of procuring bail pending his appeal. So that the question presented for the decision of this Court is whether the prisoner is entitled to bail under the circumstances of this case, as shown by the affidavits and other papers submitted at the hearing.
This being a power conferred upon the Supreme Court by the Constitution, it might be an interesting inquiry, whether such power could be taken away or abridged 'by an act of the legislature; but as we are not aware of any statute by which the legislature has undertaken either to abridge or take away such power from this Court, we do not deem it either necessary or proper to enter upon such inquiry at this time. Sec. 75 of the Criminal Statutes (2 Rev. Stat., p. 283,) has been referred to as depriving a person, after conviction, of the right to bail in certain cases. That section reads as follows: “It shall not be lawful for any Justice of the Supreme Court, or any Circuit Judge of this State, pending an appeal to the Supreme Court, to grant bail to any person who shall have been convicted of any offense, the punishment whereof is death, or imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for any term exceeding ten years.” It is very manifest from the language used in this section that it has no application to the Supreme Court, for its provisions are, in express terms, confined to a single Justice of the Supreme Court and to the Circuit Judges. The very fact that the language is so confined, affords a strong inference that the legislature did not intend to undertake ‘to abridge the powers of this Court in granting bail, either before or after conviction in any case; a power which was exercised by this Court in the case of State v. McFail, 36 S. C., 605. In accordance with these views, an order has been passed, granting the prisoner bail upon the terms specified in the order.
In this case two motions were submitted — first, a motion to grant the prisoner bail pending his appeal, and, second, a motion to suspend the appeal for the purpose of enabling the defendant to move before the Circuit Court for a new trial upon the ground of after-discovered evidence. The first motion has been disposed of by an order heretofore granted, allowing the prisoner’s application for bail, for the reasons stated in an opinion accompanying said order. It, therefore, only remains for us to dispose of the second motion.
It is, therefore, ordered, that the appeal in this case be suspended, for the purpose of enabling the defendant to move before the Circuit Court for a new trial upon the ground of after-discovered evidence. '
It is further ordered, that the Circuit Court do certify to this Court its action in the premises; and, if a new trial be granted, the result of such trial.
It is further ordered, that tire clerk of this Court do furnish the clerk of the Court of General Sessions for Beaufort County with a certified copy of this order, to be filed with the record of the case in that Court.