Allison v. Baker

Decision Date05 January 1943
Citation11 So.2d 578,152 Fla. 274
PartiesALLISON v. BAKER, Sheriff.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

Appeal from Circuit Court, Palm Beach County; Harry N. Sandler judge.

E. M Baynes, of West Palm Beach, for appellant.

J. Tom Watson, Atty. Gen., and Woodrow M. Melvin, Asst. Atty. Gen for appellee.

CHAPMAN, Justice.

On July 27, 1942 Stafford Allison presented his petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the Honorable Harry N. Sandler, then an acting Judge of the Circuit Court of Palm Beach County, Florida. The petitioner alleged that he was being unlawfully deprived of his liberties by the Sheriff of Palm Beach County under an indictment then pending against him charging the crime of murder in the first degree; that the petitioner was innocent of the charge, and his unlawful detention consisted largely of a denial of the right to bail because the proof against him was not evident, nor the presumption great. The petition was sworn to and the sufficiency of material allegations of the petition was not made an issue by the parties or considered in the lower court.

The lower court entered an order denying the petition, and the reasons for so doing were that the petitioner, on July 27, 1942, was being confined in the State Prison at Raiford, Florida, under a judgment and sentence for a period of fifteen years and had only served one year of the fifteen-year sentence when the petition for the writ was presented in the lower court; and if the court should issue the writ and a hearing be given and an appearance bond allowed, the petitioner could not be cischarged from custody because of the sentence on a different charge then being served by the petitioner, and the hearing would be fruitless and no lawful purpose served. An appeal from the order was perfected here.

The writ of habeas corpus in a high prerogative writ of ancient origin designed to obtain immediate relief from unlawful imprisonment without sufficient legal reasons. Essentially, it is a writ of inquiry and is issued to test the reasons or grounds of restraint and detention. The writ is venerated by all free and liberty loving people and recognized as a fundamental guaranty and protection of their right of liberty. Section 5 of Article 5 of the Florida Constitution confers on each Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida the power to issue the writ to any part of the State of Florida and can make the same returnable before himself or the Supreme Court, or before any Circuit Judge. Section 11 of Article 5 of the Florida Constitution grants Circuit Courts the power to issue and hear habeas corpus writs. Sections 79.01 to 79.12, Florida Statutes 1941, prescribe proceedings in habeas corpus.

It is not contended that the petitioner's imprisonment in the State Prison at Raiford under the...

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8 cases
  • Pompey v. Cochran
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • January 8, 1997
    ...and liberty loving people and recognized as a fundamental guaranty and protection of their right of liberty." Allison v. Baker, 152 Fla. 274, 275, 11 So.2d 578, 579 (1943). As stated in Anglin v. Mayo, 88 So.2d 918 [The writ] is as old as the common law itself and is an integral part of our......
  • Santana v. Henry
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • May 29, 2009
    ...and liberty loving people and recognized as a fundamental guaranty and protection of their right of liberty." Allison v. Baker, 152 Fla. 274, 275, 11 So.2d 578, 579 (1943). "The great writ has its origins in antiquity and its parameters have been shaped by suffering and deprivation. It is m......
  • Henry v. Santana
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • April 28, 2011
    ...United States and the Constitutions of the different states.Fabisinski, 152 So. at 209–10.2 This Court subsequently in Allison v. Baker, 152 Fla. 274, 11 So.2d 578 (1943), reiterated the basic purpose of the writ: The writ of habeas corpus is a high prerogative writ of ancient origin design......
  • Valdez-Garcia v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • September 19, 2007
    ...the release of the person illegally detained. See 28 Fla. Jur. Habeas Corpus and Postconviction Remedies § 1 (2007); Allison v. Baker, 152 Fla. 274, 11 So.2d 578, 579 (1943). Some of Florida's oldest laws create the procedures for writs of habeas corpus. Before Florida's statehood, the Legi......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

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