Ex Parte Roselle

• Decision Date: 05 May 1920
• Docket Number: (No. 5827.)
• Citation: 222 S.W. 248
• Parties: Ex parte ROSELLE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

222 S.W. 248

Ex parte ROSELLE.

(No. 5827.)

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

May 5, 1920.

On Motion for Rehearing, June 9, 1920.

Appeal from Criminal District Court, Harris County; C. W. Robinson, Judge.

Application of P. L. Roselle for writ of habeas corpus. From a judgment remanding him to custody, he appeals. Affirmed.

Heidingsfelders, of Houston, for appellant.

Alvin M. Owsley, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

LATTIMORE, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the criminal district court of Harris county, remanding appellant to the custody of certain officers of that county, and directing that he be forthwith delivered to the extradition agent of the state of Wyoming.

On April 12, 1920, a warrant issued from the office of the Governor of Texas, duly reciting that appellant stood properly charged by affidavit with the offense of forgery in the state of Wyoming, and that demand had been made, in accordance with the laws of the United States and of this state, for the delivery of appellant to a named officer of said state of Wyoming, to be by him extradited. The application for the writ of habeas corpus seems to set up that appellant was detained without any warrant or due process of law, it being stated therein that he was held under a telegram from a Wyoming officer. The application was dated April 7, 1920. A hearing was had in the court below, and judgment rendered, remanding appellant on April 13, 1920, and the warrant above referred to seems to have been offered in evidence. We think the judgment of the trial court correct. Said warrant was signed by W. A. Johnson, acting Governor, and duly certified to by the secretary of state. This court judicially knows that W. A. Johnson is the duly elected and qualified Lieutenant Governor of Texas, and that he has authority, and is required, in the absence or inability of the Governor, to act as Governor of the state. The presumption is in favor of the regularity of the acts of the said Johnson as acting Governor, and, in the absence of some showing to the contrary, such acts will be upheld.

The objections to the jurat to the complaint against appellant are not matters which we can consider.

The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

On Motion for Rehearing.

In a motion for rehearing it is insisted that we were in error in upholding the action of the lower court in remanding appellant to the custody of the officers, who held him under a warrant issued by W. A. Johnson, acting Governor of Texas, upon a requisition from the Governor of Wyoming. No authorities are cited intimating the incorrectness of our holding originally in this regard. The warrant is regular on its face, is signed by W. A. Johnson, acting Governor, is attested by the great seal of Texas, and the signature and seal of the secretary of state of Texas. The burden is on appellant to show that this prima facie case of regularity was not in accord with the facts, and such burden is not met by any showing in this case. We think the regularity of the acts of the acting Governor is to be presumed, in the absence of any affirmative attack and showing relative thereto. Ex parte Stanley, 25 Tex. App. 378, 8 S. W. 645, 8 Am. St. Rep. 440; Ex parte White...