Ex parte Willette
| Decision Date | 23 February 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 38905,38905 |
| Citation | 63 So.2d 52,219 Miss. 785 |
| Parties | Ex parte WILLETTE. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Melvin, Melvin & Melvin, Laurel, for appellant.
J. P. Coleman, Atty. Gen., by Joe T. Patterson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Petitioner, Charles Jay Willette, has filed in this court, under Code of 1942, Sec. 1180, a de novo petition for bail pending appeal from his conviction in December 1952 of murder, in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Jones County. Petitioner was sentenced to life imprisonment, and has perfected an appeal which is now pending from that conviction to this court. With the present docket this appeal on the merits will probably not be submitted until sometime in October 1953, about eight months from the present time.
The petition avers that Willette is a man 74 years of age, and that his continued confinement in jail in his present physical condition will seriously affect his health and his life. It states that for some two or three years petitioner has suffered with a severe case of bronchial asthma and of cardiac asthma, and that during this time his constitution has become so deteriorated that it is necessary for him to have fresh air, to take exercise in the open, and that he has been under the constant care and attention of a physician. It is charged that while confined in jail, as he now is, fresh air and exercise are impossible, and that on many nights it is impossible for him to sleep, and it is necessary for him to sit up all night in order to keep breathing; that on several occasions since his confinement in the latter part of December 1952 it has been necessary for him to be removed from the jail to a hospital for treatment, and that under all of these circumstances his confinement will greatly impair his health and endanger his life; that his body is rapidly deteriorating, and his doctors are fearful for his life if he remains in jail. Attached to this petition are the affidavits of five medical doctors, the sheriff of Jones County, and of the jailer and his wife.
A similar petition for bail was presented to the Circuit Court of Jones County, which, after considering the affidavits and testimony offered by the State, denied it on February 10. The present petition to this court is a de novo petition, not an appeal from the circuit court. It is authorized by Code of 1942, Sec. 1180:
This statute in a case of this kind was interpreted in some detail in Ex parte Atkinson, 1911, 101 Miss. 744, 58 So. 215. It was there held that a petition for bail to the Supreme Court, filed under what is now Section 1180, was a de novo proceeding in this court in the exercise of its revisory powers; that, accordingly, an application for bail must first be presented to the trial judge before presentation to the Supreme Court; that the Supreme Court exercises its powers on the merits of the petition presented to it, independently of the action of the trial court, and that it may act upon the same or additional evidence. To the same effect is Ex parte Prewitt, 1913, 106 Miss. 62, 63 So. 225. Compare Marley v. State, 1915, 109 Miss. 169, 68 So. 75, 770; Crosby v. State, 1921, 125 Miss. 433, 88 So. 3; Ex parte Wheeler, Miss. 1898, 24 So. 261. Petitioner meets these procedural prerequisites. He has previously filed a petition for bail pending appeal with the circuit court, which was denied, and he now presents in this court a de novo petition with affidavits to support it.
A summary of the affidavits and evidence before this court is as follows:
Dr. Risher is the doctor for the Jones County jail, and has attended Willette several times since January 5, 1953. At each time he found him in a critical condition, so much so that it was necessary to send him to the hospital for treatment. He said that Willette is suffering from cardiac asthma and bronchial asthma, and has suffered from these diseases for a number of years; that he needs exercise, proper diet, and plenty of fresh air, and that if he does not get these, it will greatly imperil and jeopardize his health and life; that he is an old man 74 years of age, and that his health is rapidly deteriorating and will continue to do so if confined in jail, 'and will result in death.' Dr. Culpepper has had Willette as a patient for several years, treating him for severe attacks of bronchial asthma. He agrees with the conclusions of Dr. Risher. Dr. Hinman has also had petitioner as a patient for several years, treating him for bronchial and cardiac asthma. Dr. Bethea has also had petitioner as a patient for two years, treating him for the same troubles. Dr. Foster is a physician at the South Mississippi Hospital in Laurel, and for the past few weeks has had petitioner under his treatment. Their conclusions as to the danger of continued confinement to Willettee's health and life were substantially the same as those outlined above. The Sheriff of Jones County, and the jailer and his wife, who live in the jail building, also made affidavits that since petitioner's confinement in jail his general physical condition and health have deteriorated rapidly and considerably, and that in their opinions if he continues to be confined in jail, his health will continue to deteriorate rapidly.
The State, as part of its brief, attaches a sworn transcript of the testimony presented by the State to the circuit judge on the hearing upon a similar, independent petition to him. Dr. Boone had not seen or examined petitioner at all, but he testified as to the nature of bronchial asthma and of cardiac asthma, the latter being a heart disease which simulates asthma, and said that confinement of a man with that trouble in the jury room, where petitioner is confined, would not in his opinion be dangerous to a man's health. He conceded that confinement in the jail upstairs would be detrimental under the circumstances there existing. Dr. beech, about six weeks prior to February 10, had been telephoned about an asthmatic attack from which petitioner was suffering, and he sent petitioner some medicine to alleviate it. He saw Willette several hours later, after the...
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King v. East, WC 77-100-S.
...There must be strong grounds for apprehending a fatal result or the permanent, substantial impairment of health. Ex Parte Willette, 219 Miss. 785, 63 So.2d 52, 54 (1953). All reported Mississippi cases addressing the question of when bail pending appeal should be granted because of the cond......
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Jones v. State, 2003-KA-00083-COA.
...recommendations that "confinement will aggravate the trouble and imperil the life and health of petitioner." In Ex parte Willette, 219 Miss. 785, 63 So.2d 52, 54 (Miss.1953), the court likewise allowed bail pending appeal finding it probable that confinement is "likely to produce, fatal or ......
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Frontier Ins. Co. v. State, 98-CA-00399-COA.
...29 is confined to the period prior to conviction. The right to bail after conviction is not within that section." Ex Parte Willette, 219 Miss. 785, 790, 63 So.2d 52, 54 (1953) (citations omitted) (emphasis ¶ 11. Miss.Code Ann. § 99-5-5 (Rev. 1994) provides for bail prior to conviction, and ......