People v. Nierstheimer
| Decision Date | 04 June 1945 |
| Docket Number | No. 961.,961. |
| Citation | 63 F. Supp. 594 |
| Parties | PEOPLE ex rel. HERNDON v. NIERSTHEIMER. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Illinois |
Thomas Herndon, in pro. per.
George T. Barrett, Atty. Gen. of Illinois, for respondent, Walter Nierstheimer, Warden, Illinois State Penitentiary.
The petition for habeas corpus having been filed by relator, a show cause order was served upon the respondent and he has filed herein his return with supporting brief. Relator has submitted his answer to the return with his brief. From a review of the entire record it is apparent that no issue of fact remains. Since questions of law only are presented complete disposition of the case can now be made. Walker v. Johnston, 312 U.S. 275, 284, 61 S.Ct. 574, 85 L.Ed. 830.
The undisputed facts which give rise to the questions of law will be stated as briefly as possible. In the year 1929 relator was indicted in the Lawrence County, Illinois, Circuit Court and charged with the crime of robbery while armed. On June 20, 1929 the defendant entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to the Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac, Illinois, for an indeterminate sentence as provided by law of not less than one year and not more than life. Pursuant to the sentence he was delivered to the superintendent or warden of the Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac, Illinois. Thereafter, on October 25, 1932, by means of proceedings that were subsequently held not to comply with the law relator was transferred from the said Illinois State Reformatory to the Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Menard, Illinois. Thereafter several other transfers of relator to various branches of the Illinois State Penitentiary were made and finally on August 26, 1943 he was again transferred to the Menard Branch of the Illinois State Penitentiary. On June 26, 1944 he filed in the Circuit Court of Randolph County a petition for a writ of habeas corpus against Walter Nierstheimer, Warden of said Illinois State Penitentiary, Menard Branch. A writ of habeas corpus was issued and after a hearing relator was discharged from the custody of said warden because said petitioner had been, as the court found, unlawfully transferred from the Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac to the Illinois State Penitentiary, Menard Branch, Menard, Illinois, and for that reason was being detained by the said Warden without warrant of law. Upon his release by virtue of said order the Warden of the Illinois State Penitentiary, Pontiac Branch (formerly the Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac) seized relator and returned him to that institution for the reason that he had not served the maximum sentence imposed upon him by the Circuit Court of Lawrence County. Thereafter relator filed in the Livingston County, Illinois, Circuit Court, being the county in which he was then being detained, a petition for writ of habeas corpus against A. A. Bennett, Warden of the Illinois State Penitentiary, Pontiac Branch, as respondent, and on September 15, 1944, the said writ of habeas corpus having issued, the petitioner was produced in open court and a hearing was had on the merits of the petition. The court found that the petitioner was lawfully held by the respondent and dismissed the petition. Subsequently, following statutory proceedings, relator was on January 6, 1945, by order of the Lawrence County, Illinois, Circuit Court, entered after a hearing at which relator was present with opportunity to testify and present evidence, transferred from the Illinois State Reformatory, Pontiac, Illinois, to the Illinois State Penitentiary, Menard Branch, Menard, Illinois, where he is now detained in the custody of the respondent. At the time he was seized by the officers of the Illinois State Penitentiary, Pontiac Branch, after his release by order of the Randolph County Circuit Court his sentence had not been fully served and has not yet been fully served.
It would appear from a study of the foregoing statement of facts that the only issue which might involve a question under the Federal Constitution turns upon the right of the State of Illinois under the law of Illinois to seize relator after his discharge upon a writ of habeas corpus by the Randolph County Circuit Court on June 26, 1944 and require him to serve the unexpired portion of his original sentence. If, under the law of Illinois, the right to seize and reimprison him for the aforesaid purpose did exist his detention is not unlawful and infringes no rights under the laws or the Constitution of the United States.
I have arrived at the following conclusions:
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...849, 68 S.Ct. 1500, 92 L.Ed. 1772 (1948); United States ex rel. Herndon v. Nierstheimer, 152 F.2d 453 (7th Cir.), affirming 63 F.Supp. 594, 595 (E.D.Ill.1945). Cf. People of City of New York ex rel. Thompson v. Noble, 231 F.Supp. 188, 190 (S.D.N.Y.1964). 8 See N.Y.Correction Law, § 61(1). 9......
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