Etheridge v. Poston
| Decision Date | 16 February 1933 |
| Docket Number | No. 9054,9054 |
| Citation | 176 Ga. 388,168 S.E. 25 |
| Parties | ETHERIDGE . v. POSTON, Warden. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
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Syllabus by the Court.
1. Upon the trial of the instant application for the writ of habeas corpus, the presiding judge was authorized to find that the sentence under which the applicant was being restrained, and which was imposed upon him as a road tax defaulter, was entered by the board of commissioners at a trial at which the applicant was present and of the time and place of which he had been given due and legal notice. See Civil Code 1910, § 702.
2. The fact that the sentence imposed a servitude of 25 days on the chain gang, and that the applicant as the party subject thereto was accessible but was not arrested until the expiration of more than 25 days from the date when the sentence was intended to become effective, did not entitle the applicant to be discharged. He could not be held to have served the term therein mentioned, when in point of fact he had never been placed in the chain gang and had not offered to commence the execution of his sentence. Daniel v. Persons, 137 Ga. 826, 74 S. E. 260; Neal v. State, 104 Ga. 509 (2), 30 S. E. 858, 42 L. R. A. 190, 69 Am. St. Rep. 175; Avery v. State, 22 Ga. App. 746 (3), 97 S. E. 204.
3. The sentence of the county commissioners was not void because it required the defendant to serve in the chain gang for a part of the year 1932, whereas the road tax as to which he was adjudged to be a defaulter accrued in the year 1931. The law places no such limitation upon the jurisdiction or authority of the county commissioners. Civil Code 1910, § 701.
4. If the sentence was otherwise valid, the execution of the same would not be illegal merely because the county authorities did not attempt to enforce the sentence until "the applicant's right to the writ of certiorari had expired, leaving applicant no other remedy except the writ of habeas corpus."
5. Wells v. Pridgen, 154 Ga. 397 (1, 2), 114 S. E. 355. In the present case, the only question to be determined was the legality of the applicant's detention, and the question whether he was guilty or innocent of the charge of being a road-tax defaulter was irrelevant, that question having been foreclosed by the judgment and sentence of the county commissioners. Peebles v. Man-gum, 142 Ga. 699, 83 S. E. 522; Hudson v. Jennings, 134 Ga. 373 (2), 67 S. E. 1037.
Error from Superior Court, Seminole County; C. W. Worrill, Judge.
Habeas corpus proceeding by R. C. Ether-idge against M. C. Poston, Warden of the Chain Gang of Seminole County. To review a judgment refusing the application and remanding him to the custody of the Warden, the applicant brings error.
Judgment affirmed.
E. C. Smith, Jr., and Dixie Drake, both of Donalsonville, for plaintiff in error.
H. G. Rawls, of Donalsonville, for defendant in error.
This was a habeas corpus case, in which R. C. Etheridge sought to be discharged from the custody of M. C. Poston, warden of the chain gang of Seminole county. The judge of the superior court, after hearing evidence, passed an order remanding the applicant to the custody of the warden; and the applicant excepted. It appeared from the allegations of the petition that the authority claimed by the warden for holding the applicant in custody was a sentence of the board of commissioners of roads and revenues of Seminole county wherein the applicant was adjudged to be a road-tax defaulter. The sentence as introduced in evidence at the hearing was as follows: "Gordon...
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...Ga. 567(1), 41 S.E. 691; Harrell v. Avera, 139 Ga. 340 (1), 77 S.E. 160; Wells v. Pridgen, 154 Ga. 397(1), 114 S.E. 355; Etheridge v. Poston, 176 Ga. 388(5), 168 S.E. 25; Kinman v. Clark, 185 Ga. 328, 195 S.E. 166; Sanders v. Aldredge, 189 Ga. 69, 5 S.E.2d 371; Wallace v. Foster, 206 Ga. 56......
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Sanders v. Aldredge
... ... Cir., 53 F.2d 586; In re Terrill, 8 Cir., 144 ... F. 616, 618; McFarland v. Donaldson, 115 Ga. 567, ... 568, 41 S.E. 1000; Etheridge v. Poston, 176 Ga ... 388(5), 168 S.E. 25; Blackstone v. Nelson, 151 Ga ... 706, 108 S.E. 114; Strickland v. Thompson, 155 Ga ... 125(1, 3, 4), ... ...
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Maxwell v. State, 76627
...of that motion should be affirmed. "A sentence is not voided because of the state's delay in attempting to enforce it. Etheridge v. Poston, 176 Ga. 388, 168 S.E. 25 (1933). This appears to be a prevalent rule. E.g., Ex parte Grouch, 29 Okla.Crim. 343, 233 P. 780 (1925); Miller v. Evans, 15 ......
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Huff v. McLarty, 33418
...it need not be an act of the state. A sentence is not voided because of the state's delay in attempting to enforce it. Etheridge v. Poston, 176 Ga. 388, 168 S.E. 25 (1933). This appears to be a prevalent rule. E. g., Ex parte Grouch, 29 Okl.Cr. 343, 233 P. 780 (1925); Miller v. Evans, 115 I......