Ex Parte Griggs
| Decision Date | 16 March 1923 |
| Docket Number | No. 14783.,14783. |
| Citation | 214 Mo. App. 304,248 S.W. 609 |
| Parties | En paste GRIGGS. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
L. A. Laughlin, of Kansas City, for petitioner.
George B. Reinhardt, of Kansas City, for respondent.
Under section 1546, R. S., 1909, the prosecuting attorney of Audrain county, Mo., on March 26, 1917, tiled an information before a justice of the peace of that county, charging petitioner (then a female child of 13 years, having been born on December 20, 1903) with being incorrigible to such extent that she could not be controlled by her parents and guardian in whose custody she had been, and with unlawfully associating with Immoral, criminal, bad, and vicious persons and with associating with male persons with whom she had sexual intercourse, and alleging that, unless she was taken away from the custody of her associates and from her parents, she would become permanently an unchaste and immoral woman.
On March 27, 1917, the justice adjudged petitioner to be guilty as charged, and thereupon sentenced her to the state industrial home for girls at Chillicothe, Mo., "until she reaches the age of 21 years"; she being found to be a fit subject to be committed to said institution. On February 15, 1923, the Governor of the state, upon the declaration of the physician of said industrial home that petitioner was feeble-minded, and proceeding to act under section 12302, R. S. 1919, issued his warrant, reciting the fact that petitioner had been sentenced to the industrial home and had been declared by the physician thereof to be feeble-minded, and directing the sheriff of Livingston county to convey to her to the colony for the feeble-minded and epileptic at Marshall, Mo., "there to be detained until restored to reason." In accordance therewith, petitioner was taken to the institution at Marshall, and has been confined there ever since. To test the legality of her confinement there, and to obtain her liberty and release therefrom, this application for a writ of habeas corpus is made. The writ was issued, and the superintendent of the colony for feeble-minded and epileptic has brought petitioner before us, stating in his return the facts and basis of her detention as hereinabove stated.
It will be observed that petitioner was sentenced to the industrial home for girls until she becomes 21 years of age, not for any crime or misdemeanor, but on the ground that she was incorrigible and immoral, and unless taken from her surroundings and associates would become a permanently unchaste and immoral woman. Under that sentence her term in the industrial home will expire December 20, 1924. On the mere statement...
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