Ex parte Copeland

• Decision Date: 16 May 1911
• Citation: 115 P. 627,5 Okla.Crim. 551,1911 OK CR 117
• Parties: Ex parte COPELAND.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

115 P. 627

5 Okla.Crim. 551, 1911 OK CR 117

Ex parte COPELAND.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

May 16, 1911

Syllabus by the Court.

A judge of a district court of a county in which a superior court is created by law has the power to transfer to such superior court any cause, either civil or criminal, pending in said district court, and, when said cause or causes may be so transferred to such superior court, they will stand for trial in said court as if they had been originally filed therein.

Petition of Annanias Copeland for a writ of habeas corpus. Writ discharged, and petitioner remanded to custody.

E. I Saddler, for petitioner.

John Adams, County Atty., and Smith C. Matson, Asst. Atty. Gen for the State.

FURMAN P.J.

This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in which it is alleged that petitioner is unlawfully restrained of his liberty, and is confined in the county jail of Logan county, Okl., by B W. Murphy, sheriff of said county, under and by virtue of a commitment issued out of the superior court of said Logan county, based upon a sentence pronounced in said court against petitioner for the offense of grand larceny, in which sentence the punishment of petitioner was assessed at imprisonment in the state penitentiary for the period of three years after the date of his delivery to the warden of said penitentiary. Petitioner alleges that said sentence was illegal and the commitment by virtue of which petitioner is held is also illegal, because the said superior court of Logan county, Okl., had never legally acquired jurisdiction of appellant and of the offense for which this petitioner was convicted, and upon which conviction the aforesaid sentence was pronounced upon the following grounds: That petitioner was tried in the district court of Logan county, Okl., on the 27th day of February, 1911, and the jury failed to agree that on the 9th day of April, 1911, the county attorney filed a motion to transfer said cause from the district court of Logan county, Okl., to the superior court of said county for trial, over the objections of petitioner, and that by virtue of said order said cause was transferred to said superior court, and, after being so transferred, petitioner was tried in said superior court with the result above mentioned.

These allegations present only one question of law, which can be determined in habeas corpus proceedings: That is, did the district court of Logan county, Okl., have power to transfer this cause to the superior court of said county, and did the superior court thereby acquire jurisdiction of said...