Ex parte Brown

• Decision Date: 22 September 1927
• Docket Number: A-6619.
• Citation: 259 P. 280,38 Okla.Crim. 124
• Parties: Ex parte BROWN.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

259 P. 280

38 Okla.Crim. 124

Ex parte BROWN.

No. A-6619.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

September 22, 1927

Syllabus by the Court.

The question as to whether the person demanded and detained on an extradition warrant is substantially charged with a crime is a question of law, which on the face of the papers is open to inquiry on writ of habeas corpus.

Unless the affidavit, complaint, or information charges the person sought with the commission of a crime, it is fatally defective, and a warrant for his extradition is unauthorized.

See opinion for purported affidavit held insufficient to constitute a basis for extradition proceedings.

Original petition by L. N. Brown for habeas corpus. Writ allowed.

Blanton Osborn & Curtis, of Pauls Valley, for petitioner.

The Attorney General and Mac Q. Williamson, of Pauls Valley, for respondents.

DOYLE P.J.

The petition for writ of habeas corpus shows that the cause of restraint, as alleged, is by virtue of an executive warrant issued by the Governor of the state of Oklahoma on a requisition made by the Governor of the state of Kansas.

It is averred that the purported affidavit is insufficient in law to charge the commission of an offense against the laws of the state of Kansas and is insufficient to charge a crime against this petitioner, and that the order of arrest and detention is illegal and void. That application has heretofore been made to Tom P. Pace, Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District for a writ of habeas corpus, and that upon a hearing thereof said writ was denied.

The writ issued to respondents R. D. Blanton, sheriff of Garvin county, and E. R. Chapin, agent of the state of Kansas returnable May 25, 1927.

A certified copy of the original affidavit filed in said court on May 18, 1927, is as follows:

"In the City Court of Wichita, in and for Wichita City Township, in said County and State. The State of Kansas v. L N. Brown.

Affidavit.

State of Kansas, Sedgwick County-ss:

------, being duly sworn, on oath and says that on the 1st day of April, A. D. 1927, in the county of Sedgwick and state of Kansas, one L. N. Brown did then and there unlawfully feloniously, willfully, intentionally, and with the intent to cheat and defraud the mortgagee, the Commercial Investment Company, a corporation, organized and existing under and by virtue of the law, conceal the following personal property, to wit: One Hudson brougham automobile, motor No. 419234, serial No. 723098, of the value of $1,786, on which said personal property there was a valid and existing mortgage in the sum of $1,298 theretofore given by the said L. N. Brown to the said Commercial Investment Company, as aforesaid, the said Commercial Investment Company having a lien on all of said property by virtue of said mortgage and note secured thereby in the amount of $1,298; that there is now due and owing on said

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