Cobb v. State

• Decision Date: 17 March 1939
• Docket Number: 26958.
• Citation: 2 S.E.2d 116,59 Ga.App. 695
• Parties: COBB v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

2 S.E.2d 116

59 Ga.App. 695

COBB v. STATE.

No. 26958.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

March 17, 1939

Syllabus by the Court.

Judge who had announced that he had disqualified as judge in murder prosecution because of his relationship to a prosecutor, was qualified to hear contempt case against defendant charged with murder, based on defendant's statements regarding such judge.

Where judge had disqualified in murder prosecution because of relationship to a prosecutor, the judge's order restraining sheriff from carrying defendant before another judge in bail hearing was illegal. Code 1933, §§ 24-2617, 24-2623, 24-2624.

Where either before or just after receiving bail, defendant charged with murder, wrote and published a book containing radical language imputing lack of virtue and integrity to judge, defendant was properly adjudged in contempt of court notwithstanding the judge had announced his disqualification in the murder case because of relationship to a prosecutor and notwithstanding the judge had passed an illegal order restraining sheriff from carrying the defendant before another judge in bail hearing.

The court did not err in adjudging the defendant in contempt.

Conforming to the answers of the Supreme Court to certify questions in 200 S.E. 796.

Judge W. W. Woodrum, as judge of the superior courts of the Ogeechee Circuit, issued an attachment against Albert Cobb which was as follows: "It being made to appear to William Woodrum, as Judge of the Superior Courts of the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit, that Albert Cobb, a defendant in a case, in Screven County, in said judicial circuit, under an indictment by the Grand Jury of Screven County, charged with murder, and that said cause is still pending in said Screven Superior Court. That the said Albert L. Cobb was released on bail on January 22, 1938, and either before or just after receiving said bail, did write and cause to be published a certain book entitled 'The Daughtry Case', and caused the same to be circulated in the counties comprising the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit of Georgia, and elsewhere, while the case in which Albert L. Cobb, charged with murder, was still pending in the said Screven Superior Court; in which said book, at page 149 thereof, appears the following language to wit: 'Woodrum is as much a judicial prostitute as is any loose wretch who walks the streets a moral prostitute;' copies of which said book were sold in the city of Millen of Jenkins County, Georgia, where said judge lives, and two of Cobb's salesmen offered to sell said book to said judge himself on the streets of the city of Millen. Said language referred to in said book directly referred to the Judge of the Superior Courts of the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit, and attempts to cause these courts to lose their hold upon the public respect, lower their dignity, and said book was written and published and circulated by the said Albert L. Cobb for the purpose of holding this court up to ridicule and contempt, and to cause said court to be unable to maintain law and order." The citation was amended as follows: "(1) By adding at the end of the fifth line from the bottom of the first page thereof, after the words 'Judge of the Superior Courts of the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit,' the words 'and the judicial acts of said judge in the course of his judicial duties in connection with the case in which Albert L. Cobb is charged with murder;' (2) By adding after the words 'Judicial Circuit' on the next to the last line of page one thereof, the words 'and the judicial acts of said judge in said case."'

Cobb filed a plea in bar to the citation as follows: "Now comes respondent named in the citation issued by Honorable William Woodrum on the 11th day of February, 1938, Albert L Cobb, and, appearing specially herein and denying expressly the jurisdiction of Honorable William Woodrum, makes and files this his plea in bar to said citation, and for grounds thereof says: 1. That the said Hon. William Woodrum is wholly incompetent, and without any legal right or power to issue or hear and determine any matter or question sought to be raised or determined by said citation, for the following stated reasons to wit: (a) that respondent, jointly with four other persons, was indicted by the grand jury of Screven County at the November Term, 1937, of the superior court of said county, for the offense of accessory to the murder of C. L. Daughtry; (b) that under said indictment respondent was arrested and jailed on November 16, 1937; (c) that on December 27, 1937, respondent still being in jail under said indictment, counsel for respondent having discovered the relationship of the said Hon. William Woodrum to C. L. Daughtry, Jr., one of the prosecutors of the respondent, the said Hon. William Woodrum was notified of said relationship, and his disqualification in said case against respondent on account of sale; (d) that on the 28th day of December, 1937, the said Hon. William Woodrum was notified by respondent's counsel, despite said Hon. Woodrum's assurances that he (the said Hon. William Woodrum) would give respondent a fair trial, that said disqualification would not be waived by respondent, on account of the relationship aforesaid, and that it would be necessary for the said Hon. William Woodrum to procure another judge to try the case against respondent; (e) that on December 30, 1937, at the court house in Sylvania in Screven County, the said Hon. William Woodrum stated that he had been unable to procure another judge to try said case against respondent, which had previously been set by said Hon. William Woodrum for trial on January 3, 1938, and then and there, the said Hon. William Woodrum announced that he had disqualified as judge in said case by reason of said relationship to C. L. Daughtry, Jr., as a prosecutor of this respondent; (f) that on said date, December 30, 1937, the said Hon. William Woodrum made the further announcement that he was unable to consider the matter of granting bail to this respondent for the reason that the said Hon. William Woodrum was 'legally dead' in said case; (g) that thereafter, to wit: January 7, 1938, respondent made application to the Honorable R. N. Hardeman, Judge of the Middle District of Georgia for bail, in which application the fact and the ground of the disqualification of the said Hon. William Woodrum to hear said application and as a judge in said case, were made to appear; upon which application for bail the Hon. R. N. Hardeman, judge as aforesaid, issued the court's rule nisi, directed to the state to show cause before him on January 14, 1938, why the prayers of said application should not be granted, and issued an order to the sheriff of said Screven County to Produce at the Chambers of Hon. R. N. Hardeman, at Louisville, Georgia, on the 14th day of January, 1938, this respondent for the purpose of hearing upon said bail application; copies of which application are hereto attached and made a part hereof as exhibit 'A'; (h) that on the 13th day of January, 1938, the said Hon. William Woodrum, who had already announced his disqualification and the fact that he was legally dead in said case against respondent, nevertheless issued a restraining order and had the same served upon the sheriff of Screven County, directing said sheriff to refuse to obey the order of the Hon. R. N. Hardeman to produce this respondent before said Judge Hardeman; which said illegal injunction of the said Woodrum had the effect of preventing the lawful hearing of respondent's bail application by said Judge Hardeman, and the effect of illegally sentencing respondent to a further sentence in jail; a copy of which said illegal order is hereto attached, marked exhibit 'B' and made a part hereof; (i) that after the date of the said Hon. William Woodrum's illegal order of injunction as set out in the next preceding paragraph, respondent wrote into a book of 181 pages the words complained of in said citation and therein quoted as follows: 'Woodrum is as much a judicial prostitute as is any loose wretch who walks the street a moral prostitute;' (j) that said book entitled 'The Daughtry Case' contains 181 pages, wherein appeared the words 'Woodrum is as much a judicial prostitute as is any loose wretch who walks the street a moral prostitute,' dealt with the conduct of the said Hon. William Woodrum as an individual and was written and published by the respondent while said Woodrum was 'legally dead' and had no standing as a judge in the case against respondent, in connection with which the language complained of in said citation was used; (k) that at the time of the publication of said book, 'The Daughtry Case', and the language that 'Woodrum is as much a judicial prostitute as is any loose wretch who walks the street a moral prostitute,' the said Hon. William Woodrum was in no sense a qualified and acting judge in the...