Bolton v. Timmerman

• Decision Date: 29 October 1958
• Docket Number: No. 17468,17468
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: Ex parte Bobby Gene BOLTON, Appellant, v. George Bell TIMMERMAN, Jr., Governor of S. C., et al., Respondents.

Page 518

105 S.E.2d 518

233 S.C. 429

Ex parte Bobby Gene BOLTON, Appellant, v. George Bell TIMMERMAN, Jr., Governor of S. C., et al., Respondents.

No. 17468.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Oct. 29, 1958.

Ryan L. Scott, Columbia, for appellant.

T. C. Callison, Atty. Gen., James S. Verner, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondents.

LEGGE, Justice.

On April 26, 1958, appellant was arrested in Richland County, South Carolina, on a fugitive warrant based upon information received from the sheriff of Howell County, Missouri, charging that appellant had committed a felony in that State. On the same day, he filed bond for his appearance before the Governor of South Carolina if and when extradition papers should be received from the Governor of Missouri; and he was thereupon released from custody. Twenty-three days thereafter, towit: on May 19, extradition papers not having been received by the Governor, appellant petitioned the Judge of the Richland County Court 'that he be released absolutely and liberated, and that the extradition efforts of the State of Missouri be declared abandoned.' By their return to this petition, the Governor of South Carolina and the Sheriff of Richland County alleged that the extradition papers had been received by the Governor on May 23, the delay in their issuance having been due to the absence of the Governor of Missouri from his State on official business. The matter was heard by the Judge of the Richland County Court on May 26, 1958, at which time the extradition papers before mentioned were exhibited; and on the same day he issued his order denying the petition. From that order comes the present appeal.

Here, as in the lower court, appellant bases his claim for relief upon Section 17-201 of the 1952 Code, which reads as follows:

'Any officer in the State authorized by law to issue warrants for the arrest of any person charged with crime shall, on satisfactory information laid before him under the oath of any credible person that any fugitive in the State has committed, out of the State and within any other state, any offense which by the law of the state in which the offense was committed is punishable either capitally or by imprisonment for one year or upwards in any state prison, issue a warrant for such fugitive and commit him to any jail within the State for the space of twenty days, unless sooner demanded by the public authorities of the state wherein the offense may have been committed, agreeable to the act of Congress in that case made and provided. If no demand be made within such time the fugitive shall be liberated, unless sufficient cause be shown to the contrary. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to deprive and person so arrested of the right to release on bail as in cases of similar...