Commonwealth v. Ashe
| Decision Date | 06 January 1936 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH ex rel. LYNCH v. ASHE, Warden. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
COMMONWEALTH ex rel. LYNCH
v.
ASHE, Warden.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
Jan. 6, 1936.
Appeal No. 47, March term, 1936, from order of Court of Common Pleas, Allegheny County, No. 2114, October term, 1935; John P. Eagan, Judge.
Petition by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, on the relation of Thomas Lynch, for a writ of habeas corpus directed to Stanley P. Ashe, Warden of the Western State Penitentiary. From an order dismissing the petition and remanding the relator, the relator appeals.
Order affirmed.
Argued before FRAZER, C. J., and KEPHART, SCIIAFFER, MAXEY, DREW, LINN, and BARNES, JJ.
Herman M. Hollander and A. Morris Ginsburg, both of Pittsburgh, for appellant.
Frederick G. Weir, of Pittsburgh, for appellee.
MAXEY, Justice.
On September 14, 1925, Thomas Lynch was sentenced by the court of quarter sessions of Lycoming county upon two separate bills of indictment, each charging him with a separate act of larceny. Each sentence was for a minimum term of eighteen months and a maximum term of three years, the sentences to be served consecutively. The prison authorities entered the prisoner on their records as serving a single sentence, with a minimum of three years and a maximum of six years. On September 14, 1928, after three years' incarceration, the prisoner was paroled, in assumed compliance with the provisions of the Act of June 19, 1911, P.L. 1055, for three years, upon recommendation of the board of inspectors of the penitentiary. Within a year after his release he committed a felony in the state of Iowa. He was sentenced to serve there a term of not less than five years and not more than fifteen years.
On February 22, 1934, he was released from the Iowa Penitentiary and in due course committed to the custody of the warden of the Western State Penitentiary to serve all of his unserved time in that institution, for violation of the conditions of his parole. Lynch has since his return served eighteen months and claims that he is now entitled to a release. The court below denied his claim for a release and held that he must undergo imprisonment for eighteen months more.
It is appellant's proposition that "where a person is sentenced to serve two successive indeterminate sentences in a state penitentiary and serves the minimum part of the first sentence, then is immediately caused [by the prison authorities] to commence serving the minimum part of his second sentence, and is then paroled for a term equal to the...
To continue reading
Request your trial