Ex parte Jones

• Decision Date: 30 October 1916
• Docket Number: 19431
• Citation: 112 Miss. 27,72 So. 845
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: EX PARTE JONES

72 So. 845

112 Miss. 27

EX PARTE JONES

No. 19431

Supreme Court of Mississippi

October 30, 1916

APPEAL from the circuit court of Hinds county, HON. O. B. TAYLOR Chancellor.

Habeas corpus proceeding on behalf of Sam Jones against Sam Nunnery Chief of Police of the city of Jackson. From a judgment declining to discharge him from custody, Jones appeals.

Appellant was convicted of a violation of chapter 103, Laws 1916, being an act to restrict the traffic in intoxicating liquor and to limit the amount which may be ordered or held by a person within a given time. He instituted habeas corpus proceedings and, upon being denied his liberty, he appeals.

Affirmed.

Vardaman & Vardaman, for appellant.

Wm. Memingway, L. C. Hallam and W. E. Morse, for appellee.

OPINION

SMITH, C. J.

This is a habeas corpus proceeding in which an appeal has been prosecuted from the judgment of the court below declining to discharge appellant from custody.

It appears from the agreed statement of facts that appellant was convicted, in the court of Hon. Luther Manship, police justice of the city of Jackson, for one of the misdemeanors defined by chapter 103, Laws 1916; all offenses punishable as misdemeanors under the laws of the state having been made offenses against the city of Jackson by an ordinance adopted by the city prior to the passage of the statute. It further appears from this agreed statement of facts that:

"Prior to the conviction of appellant a petition which complied in all respects with the requirements therefor had been filed with the secretary of state, praying that chapter 103, Laws 1916, be submitted to the electors of the state for ratification or rejection under the initiative and referendum amendment to the Constitution, which appears in the Laws of 1916 as chapter 159."

Chapter 103, Laws 1916, was approved by the governor on the 16th day of February, 1916, and the initiative and referendum amendment was inserted in the Constitution by resolution adopted by the legislature on the 29th of March, 1916.

The ground upon which it is sought to avoid appellant's conviction is that, upon the filing with the secretary of state of this petition, chapter 103 of the Laws of 1916 became inoperative, and must remain in abeyance until the vote thereon is taken at the approaching election, because of a provision in the initiative and referendum amendment to the Constitution that all measures referred to a vote of the people by referendum petitions shall remain in abeyance until such vote is taken.

The contentions of counsel for the city are: First, that the...