Morris v. Waldrop

• Decision Date: 05 November 1928
• Docket Number: 27403
• Citation: 151 Miss. 553,118 So. 621
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: MORRIS v. WALDROP, SHERIFF. [*]

118 So. 621

151 Miss. 553

MORRIS v. WALDROP, SHERIFF. ^[*]

No. 27403

Supreme Court of Mississippi

November 5, 1928

Division B

APPEAL from chancery court of Marion county, HON. T. P. DALE Chancellor.

Application for habeas corpus by Lizzie Morris against W. B. Waldrop Sheriff. Decree of dismissal, and petitioner appeals. Affirmed.

Affirmed.

Goss & Goss, for appellant.

J. A. Lauderdale, Assistant Attorney-General, for appellee.

OPINION

ANDERSON, J.

Appellant filed her petition in the chancery court of Marion county against the appellee, the sheriff of that county, for a writ of habeas corpus for her release from the custody of the sheriff. There was a trial on the petition, answer thereto, and proof, resulting in a decree dismissing the petition. From that decree appellant prosecutes this appeal.

At the December, 1927, term of the circuit court of Marion county, appellant was indicted of the crime of unlawful possession of intoxicating liquor, to which charge appellant pleaded guilty and was by the court sentenced to pay a fine of five-hundred dollars and serve a term of thirty days in the county jail. However, the judgment of the court suspended the payment of four hundred dollars of the fine and the jail sentence until further order of the court. The judgment provided that the appellant should be confined in the county jail until one hundred dollars of the fine had been paid. On the 17th day of April, 1928, less than four months from the time appellant had been committed to the county jail to serve the sentence of the court, she filed the petition in this case, which, omitting the formal parts, is in this language:

"Petitioner Lizzie Morris, a resident citizen of Marion county, Mississippi, exhibits this, her petition, against W. B. Waldrop, now acting and qualified sheriff of Marion county, Mississippi, and with respects shows the following facts, to wit:

"That the petitioner was indicted by the grand jury for Marion county, Mississippi, at the December term, 1927, in the circuit court of said county and state, and was by that body charged with the unlawful possession of intoxicating liquors, and upon being arraigned upon said charge, entered a plea of 'guilty,' and was by the court sentenced to pay a fine of one hundred dollars together with the costs of court, and since said sentence at the December term, 1927 of the circuit court, has been confined in the county jail at Columbia, Marion county, Mississippi. A copy of said judgment is hereto attached marked Ex. A.

"The petitioner would further show unto this Honorable Court that she was first charged in the city court of Columbia, Mississippi, with having unlawfully intoxicating liquors in her possession, and there she entered a plea of 'guilty' to said charge, and was sentenced to pay a fine of one hundred dollars and to serve a sentence of thirty days in the city jail at Columbia, Mississippi, and after serving said time out in jail and paying her said fine, she was indicted by the grand jury for the same offense, and entered a plea of 'guilty' to said charge in the circuit court as above set out.

"Petitioner would further show that she is absolutely unable to pay said fine as was adjudged against her in the said circuit court on said charge above set out, and that she has since her said sentence been confined in the county jail in Columbia, Marion county, Mississippi, and that she has made every endeavor to secure the amount of said fine and costs, but that after being confined in the said Marion county jail for one hundred and twenty days she has failed to secure said amount with which to pay said judgment and to satisfy same.

"The petitioner would show that her long confinement in said Marion county jail on said charge has caused her to become weak in mind and body, and that her weight of over two hundred pounds has been one cause of her said confinement being injurious to her health, and petitioner alleges that said confinement has been the cause of permanent injuries to her health. And now, petitioner would show that no credit whatsoever has been given to her on said judgment and fine thereunder of one hundred dollars for the four months which she has been confined in the Marion county jail and that her confinement will be indefinite under the said fine of one hundred dollars unless the same shall be paid, which is absolutely impossible as the petitioner has no way in which to pay the said fine and satisfy the said judgment, nor has she any way of earning sufficient money to pay the said...