Ex parte O'Neal

• Decision Date: 18 November 1935
• Docket Number: Crim. 3971
• Parties: EX PARTE O'NEAL
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

87 S.W.2d 401

191 Ark. 696

EX PARTE O'NEAL

Crim. 3971

Supreme Court of Arkansas

November 18, 1935

Petition by James O'Neal for habeas corpus and certiorari.

Writ denied.

Howard Hasting, for petitioner.

Carl E. Bailey, Attorney General, and Guy E Williams and J. F. Koone, Assistants, for respondent.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

This is an original proceeding in this court by which is sought to quash a judgment of the Jackson Circuit Court, made and entered on September 21, 1928, in which judgment petitioner was adjudged guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced by the court to serve the balance of his natural life in the State penitentiary. The record in the Jackson Circuit Court is brought before us by stipulation of counsel which dispensed with the necessity for formal issuance of a writ of certiorari. In aid of petitioner's proceeding we are also asked to issue a writ of habeas corpus by which petitioner's body may be brought before this court to be dealt with according to law. The judgment of the circuit court of Jackson County under which petitioner is confined in the State penitentiary is as follows:

"On this day comes the State of Arkansas by its attorney, H. U Williamson, and comes the defendant in person, and by attorney, and by leave of the court enters his plea of guilty to the crime of murder in the first degree as charged in the indictment herein, and submits his case to the court sitting as a jury, and, the premises being seen and by the court fully understood, it is by the court considered, ordered, and adjudged that said defendant, upon his plea of guilty is guilty of the crime as charged and doth fix his punishment for the duration of his natural life. And it further appearing to the court that said defendant is without means with which to pay the costs of the prosecution of this cause, it is considered, ordered, and adjudged by the court that the county of Jackson pay all costs herein expended."

Petitioner relies upon Ex parte Jones, 27 Ark. 349, as authority for this proceeding. In the case referred to this court entertained jurisdiction in habeas corpus as an original proceeding, and in aid thereof quashed a judgment of an inferior court sentencing petitioner to a term in the State penitentiary because, as it was there said, the judgment under which the petitioner was detained was void. The facts in the Jones case, supra, were that petitioner was confined in the State penitentiary under a judgment entered by the Sebastian County Circuit Court while in session at Fort Smith, which time and place of sitting of said court were not authorized by law. This court there said "In the case at bar, the judge was clothed with no judicial authority; there was no court, consequently no judgment." In the more recent case of State ex rel. v. Neel, 48 Ark. 283, 3 S.W. 631, we stated the applicable rule as follows: "If the person restrained of his liberty is in custody under process, nothing will be inquired into, by virtue of the writ, beyond the validity of the process upon its face, and the jurisdiction of the court by which it was issued. If he be detained under a conviction...