Hurst v. Pitman

• Decision Date: 18 January 1950
• Docket Number: No. A-11303,A-11303
• Citation: 213 P.2d 877,90 Okla.Crim. 329
• Parties: HURST v. PITMAN.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

Page 877

213 P.2d 877

90 Okla.Crim. 329

HURST v. PITMAN.

No. A-11303.

Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma.

Jan. 18, 1950.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Criminal Court of Appeals has jurisdiction to issue writ of mandamus in appropriate case in aid of its exclusive appellate jurisdiction over all criminal cases. Tit. 20 O.S.1941, § 41.

2. Under the Constitution of Oklahoma (Art. 7, Sec. 2) and Statutes (Tit. 20 O.S.1941 §§ 1-16 and 31-48) the Supreme Court and the Criminal Court of Appeals are coordinate and exclusive in their respective appellate jurisdictions; the Supreme Court in civil cases, the Criminal Court of Appeals in criminal cases. Neither can interfere with nor control the other. Neither is subordinate to nor dependent upon the other, but both are responsible to the people from whom they each derive whatever power they respectively possess.

3. Appeals to the Criminal Court of Appeals from convictions for crime may be only brought from the District, Superior, and County Courts, and such other courts of record as may be established by law. Tit. 20 O.S.1941 § 40.

4. Although no appeal will lie directly from a judgment of the Justice of the Peace court to the Criminal Court of Appeals, where said Justice of the Peace court sits as a committing magistrate for the purpose of holding a preliminary examination for one accused of a felony, the proceedings before such magistrate may be reduced to writing and filed with a transcript in the District Court, and any error in such proceedings may later be presented to the Criminal Court of Appeals for review in case of a conviction in the District Court. For that reason, in a proper case, mandamus may lie from the Criminal Court of Appeals to a Justice of the Peace court sitting as a committing magistrate, and the issuance of such writ would be in aid of its exclusive appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases.

5. A prisoner in federal penitentiary located in another state which seeks dismissal of certain criminal prosecutions filed before a Justice of Peace court for alleged failure to grant him a speedy trial, is not entitled to mandamus to compel the dismissal of such prosecution pending against him before a Justice of the Peace sitting as a committing magistrate, where the warrants of arrest issued on three complaints filed before said Justice of the Peace have never been served on the accused, and he has never been brought within the jurisdiction of the Justice of Peace court; the Justice of the Peace in such case could not set the cases for trial until he had acquired jurisdiction of the person of the defendant.

Harley v. Hurst, pro se.

Shelton Skinner, County Attorney, Earl P. Enos, Assistant County Attorney, John L. Green, Assistant County Attorney, Shawnee, Attorneys for Respondent.

JONES, Presiding Judge.

The petitioner, Harley V. Hurst, is an inmate of the United States penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, where he is serving a sentence of fifteen years pronounced against him by the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, upon a plea of guilty to an indictment charging him with the crime of bank robbery, which sentence was pronounced on May 13, 1947.

The petitioner alleges that on or about March 19, 1947, he was arrested in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, and delivered to an investigator from the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation who transferred him to the county jail of Lincoln County; that he remained in the county jail in Lincoln County for twenty-four hours, at which time he was transferred to the Garfield County jail; that later he was transferred to the federal jail in Oklahoma City; that while he was incarcerated in the federal jail in Oklahoma City, he was assured by Leo Kuykendall, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and by Rex Hawks, Chief of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, that if petitioner would enter a plea of guilty to the federal charge of bank robbery, no state charges would be filed against him; that accordingly, on May 13, 1947, the petitioner entered a plea of guilty to the federal charge and was immediately, after sentence was pronounced, transported to the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas; that thereafter on June 3, 1947, the County Attorney of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, advised the Warden of the federal penitentiary that he had filed three charges of burglary against the petitioner in the Justice of the Peace Court of Randall Pitman, Jr., in the City of Shawnee in Pottawatomie County, and asked the warden of the penitentiary to place a 'hold' or 'detainer' against the petitioner so that he could be returned to Pottawatomie County, for trial at the conclusion of his federal sentence.

The petitioner further alleged that he had once been in the custody of Pottawatomie County of officers and by them voluntarily surrendered to the F. B. I., and this voluntary action on the part of the Pottawatomie County officials constituted an abandonment of their prosecution; that he had made repeated demands upon the officials of Pottawatomie County to give him an immediate trial on the charges pending against him, or in the alternative that said charges be dismissed so that no detainer would be filed against him in the federal penitentiary. The petitioner then prays for a writ of mandamus directed to the Justice of the Peace ordering him to dismiss said charges pending against him, or in the alternative to grant him an immediate hearing upon said charges.

The respondent in his response moves to dismiss the action for two reasons: First, the Criminal Court of Appeals has no jurisdiction to issue the writ of mandamus in any case; second, the Criminal Court of Appeals has no jurisdiction to issue the writ of mandamus to the Justice of the Peace for the reason that the Justice of the Peace is not a court of record and no appeal will lie from an order of the Justice of the Peace to the said Criminal Court of Appeals, and that the petition should be presented to the Supreme Court or the District Court of Pottawatomie County.

The motion to dismiss was presented in the response in which it was further alleged that the petitioner was not entitled to release upon the facts of the particular case for the reason that he had never been in the jurisdiction of Pottawatomie County, nor the Justice of the Peace Court of Pottawatomie County; that said officials had filed charges of burglary against the petitioner as quickly as they had determined that he was one of the parties who committed the crime of burglary charged against him and two other individuals. The respondent further alleged that he stands ready an willing and anxious to afford the petitioner a preliminary examination as quickly as the warrants of arrest have been served on the petitioner and he is brought before said Justice of the Peace.

A hearing was had upon the petition and the facts disclose that petitioner was arrested by W. L. Chandler, a policeman of Shawnee, sometime in March, 1947, and he was immediately delivered to two officers, one of whom was an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the other an agent of the State Bureau of Investigation that said officers were waiting in the police station in Shawnee for the petitioner, and immediately after the policeman, W. L. Chandler, arrived with Hurst, he was delivered to said officers who departed from the city of Shawnee with said Hurst in their custody; that he policeman had no knowledge that the said Hurst had allegedly committed any crimes in Pottawatomie County, and did not inform the Sheriff and County Attorney, or any of the officials of Pottawatomie County that he had arrested the said Hurst, but he was arrested at the request of the aforesaid agents of the respective Bureaus of Investigation and delivered to them at their request; that the agents took the petitioner to Chandler, Oklahoma, and thereafter to Garfield County, Oklahoma; that later while the petitioner was in the Garfield county jail, he was interviewed by the Sheriff of Pottawatomie County, but refused to make a statement concerning certain burglaries which had been committed in Pottawatomie County; that thereafter while the said Hurst was confined in the federal jail in Oklahoma City, he was again interviewed by the Sheriff and Assistant County Attorney of Pottawatomie County, at which time the said Hurst voluntarily admitted participating in the burglary of various places in Pottawatomie County which are named in the four criminal complaints filed against the petitioner in Pottawatomie County; that after these confessions were made, the Sheriff of Pottawatomie County verified certain complaints charging the petitioner with the crime of burglary allegedly committed in Pottawatomie County, which complaints were filed on April 18, 1947, before the respondent, Randall Pitman, Jr., Justice of the Peace in the City of Shawnee, and warrants of arrest were issued at that time for the said Harley V. Hurst, Isaac Barber, and Car A. Doll, who were allegedly implicated in the burglaries; that neither the Sheriff nor any of his Deputies, nor the County Attorney, nor his Assistants ever agreed with the petitioner, Hurst, nor with any other person that they would not prosecute the cases pending against the petitioner in Pottawatomie County.

The evidence further showed by the testimony of Rex Hawks, that he was Chief of the State Bureau of Investigation at the time Hurst was arrested; that Hurst was arrested in connection with several burglaries of banks, stores, and post offices in the state of Oklahoma; that a gang of such people were involved, and it later developed that they had committed over four hundred burglaries in the state of Oklahoma; Hawks admitted that he promised some of the persons implicated along with petit...