Allison v. Gray
| Citation | 296 S.W.2d 735 |
| Parties | Joseph M. ALLISON, Appellant, v. Dan GRAY, Warden, Kentucky State Reformatory, Appellee. |
| Decision Date | 14 December 1956 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Joseph M. Allison, pro se.
Jo M. Ferguson, Atty. Gen., Earle V. Powell, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
STANLEY, Commissioner.
The appellant, Joseph M. Allison, a prisoner in the LaGrange Reformatory, petitioned the Oldham Circuit Court for a writ of habeas corpus and release from custody. He alleged that the judgment of the Jefferson Circuit Cour, under which he is confined, is void because 'no statutory jury of twelve persons was impaneled,' hence, that the court had no jurisdiction to pass sentence upon him. He further charged that he was thereby deprived of 'equal protection' and due process of law under Sec. 11, Kentucky Constitution, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The circuist court denied the writ. Allison's petition and his brief are signed by him personally, and, insofar as the papers prima facie reveal, he is not represented by an attorney. We have had a number of cases like this purporting to be practiced personally but which undoubtedly are being prepared by some other prisoner who has some knowledge of law.
The judgment recites that at a court held on March 24, 1954,
The judgment recites that the jury was instructed and returned a verdict, copied therein, that the defendant was found guilty of assault with intent to rob and his punishment fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for a term of twenty-one years. The order states that the defendant having shown no cause why he should not be sentenced, he was ordered taken to prison in accordance with the judgment.
With his petition for habeas corpus, the petitioner filed the affidavits of R. P. Young and A. M. McGuffin, each of whom deposed that he had been summoned to appear in the Jefferson Circuit Court on March 24, 1954, for service as a juror, but was not selected to try this case and that he did not hear the case or agree to the judgment rendered therein. It is to be observed these two men are named in the judgment as jurors.
The respondent, warden of the reformatory, filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on the ground that it is a collateral attack on the judgment and that it is not void. The statements of the two affiants are not contradicted nor is there any explanation of the recitation in the judgment that they were members of the jury. The judgment is evidence of its own legality as well as the legality of the appellant's commitment to prison in accordance therewith. It was not required that the names of the jurors be stated in the judgment, and since it shows that there was a constitutional jury of twelve persons, we...
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Bowling v. Com.
...or innocence and not "to the fixing of the penalty since that function was no part of the common law mode of trial." Allison v. Gray, 296 S.W.2d 735, 737 (Ky.1956). See also Perry v. Commonwealth, 407 S.W.2d 714, 715 (Ky.1966); Williams v. Jones, 338 S.W.2d 693, 694 (Ky. 1960); Lee v. Bucha......
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Short v. Com.
...209 Ky. 734, 273 S.W. 489 (1925), seven jurors; Jackson v. Commonwealth, 221 Ky. 823, 299 S.W. 983 (1927), eleven jurors; Allison v. Gray, Ky., 296 S.W.2d 735 (1956). In McPerkin v. Commonwealth, 236 Ky. 528, 33 S.W.2d 622 (1931), and Hayes v. Commonwealth, Ky., 470 S.W.2d 601 (1971), we ex......
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Payne v. Com., 80-SC-627-MR
...determination. Perry v. Commonwealth, Ky., 407 S.W.2d 714 (1966), cert. den. 386 U.S. 968, 87 S.Ct. 1052, 18 L.Ed.2d 121; Allison v. Gray, Ky., 296 S.W.2d 735 (1956), cert. den. 353 U.S. 914, 77 S.Ct. 673, 1 L.Ed.2d 668; Williams v. Jones, Ky., 338 S.W.2d 693 (1960), cert. den. 365 U.S. 847......
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Wilson v. Commonwealth, No. 2010–SC–000573–MR.
...shift among the states on these issues. 27.Bowling, 163 S.W.3d at 381. 28.Id. 29.Id. at 382. 30.Id. at 377 n. 19 ( citing Allison v. Gray, 296 S.W.2d 735, 737 (Ky.1956); Perry v. Commonwealth, 407 S.W.2d 714, 715 (Ky.1966); Williams v. Jones, 338 S.W.2d 693, 694 (Ky.1960); and Lee v. Buchan......