Cofer v. State
| Decision Date | 12 May 1910 |
| Citation | 168 Ala. 171,52 So. 934 |
| Parties | COFER v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied June 30, 1910.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Cullman County; D. W. Speake, Judge.
Petition for habeas corpus by William T. L. Cofer. There was an order dismissing the petition, and petitioner appeals. Affirmed.
Emil Ahlrichs, for appellant.
Alexander M. Garber, Atty. Gen., for the State.
The petitioner's effort to bring about his discharge on a writ of habeas corpus was a collateral attack upon the judgment and sentence which had been pronounced upon him by the county court of Cullman. On such attack no mere errors or irregularities affecting the trial which resulted in the judgment could avail the petitioner; he must show that the judgment and sentence was so fatally defective as to be void. That judgment had been affirmed on appeal to this court, and was beyond question in the circuit court. It was merged in the judgment of this court. In re Newton, 94 Ala 431, 10 So. 549. The sentence pronounced by the county court after the affirmance in this court was a mere repetition of the sentence which had been affirmed, and was unnecessary. Furthermore, the effort to show that the record of the county court did not speak the truth, or that the entry upon the judgment roll of that court, though speaking the truth, had been made at a time when and under circumstances such that there was no authority of law for making it, was a collateral attack upon the record which the policy of the law inhibits. That fact should have been shown on a proper proceeding for that specific purpose had in the county court, subject to review in this. The judgment entry being clothed with jurisdiction in facie and its due authentication not being denied, it was on the hearing of the writ to be taken as conclusively showing the true history of the proceedings in the county court.
On March 1, 1901, an act of the Legislature was passed under this title: "To confer additional jurisdiction upon the county court of Cullman county, Alabama, and to regulate proceedings therein." Acts 1900-01, p. 1342. Section 1 of the act provides that the county court shall have jurisdiction of all misdemeanors committed in the county concurrent with the circuit court. Section 2 provides as follows: "That the presiding judge of the circuit court of said county, at each succeeding term, shall enter on the minutes of said court on the day of adjournment an order transferring to the county court of said county, all indictments presented or filed in the circuit court against persons charged with the commission of misdemeanors, and after...
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Ex parte Washington
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