Reeves v. Lainson, 46493.
| Decision Date | 06 June 1944 |
| Docket Number | No. 46493.,46493. |
| Citation | 14 N.W.2d 625,234 Iowa 1034 |
| Parties | REEVES v. LAINSON. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from District Court, Lee County; J. R. Leary, Judge.
Plaintiff petitioned the District Court of Lee County for a writ of habeas corpus discharging him from the custody of the defendant as Warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa. The defendant has appealed from the judgment of the court granting the writ.
The judgment is reversed and remanded and the writ is annulled.
John M. Rankin, Atty. Gen., Wm. F. McFarlin, Asst. Atty. Gen., Robert N. Johnson, Jr., Co. Atty., of Fort Madison, and Edward L. Moran, Co. Atty., of Sioux City, for appellant.
Harry Reeves, pro se.
It appears without dispute that: The petitioner was charged by a county attorney's information, filed in Woodbury County, Iowa, with the crime of burglary committed by unlawfully breaking and entering a building in said county and unlawfully opening a safe therein by means of an explosive; to this charge the plaintiff pleaded guilty, and waived time for pronouncing sentence, and the District Court of said county rendered judgment of guilty as charged, and sentenced him to forty years in the State Penitentiary at Fort Madison; a mittimus was issued committing him to said penitentiary, where he was received and imprisoned. He never appealed from the judgment.
The District Court of Woodbury County had jurisdiction of the plaintiff herein and of the crime with which he was charged. He pleaded guilty to the commission of that crime, and the court so adjudged. There is nothing in the record of the case of the State of Iowa v. Harry Reeves to sustain the charge, that he was unlawfully sentenced or that he was wrongfully and illegally restrained by the defendant herein.
The court below found that the State of Iowa could not have produced sufficient evidence to sustain the crime with which Reeves was charged, had he not pleaded guilty, and that the evidence would have sustained only a charge of conspiracy.
The matters found were not properly before the court. It is not the purpose of a habeas corpus proceeding to determine the guilt or innocence of the petitioner of the crime for which he is incarcerated, nor to pass upon errors in his trial, nor to retry the facts and pass upon the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the charge. Habeas corpus, cannot perform the function of an appeal from the judgment of conviction, where the judgment is not void. The petitioner had his opportunity to appeal. The judgment is not void and he cannot attack it collaterally by habeas corpus. We have so held many times. Shaw v. McHenry, 52 Iowa 182, 184, 2 N.W. 1096;Foreman v. Hunter, 59 Iowa 550, 553, 13 N.W. 659;Springstein v. Sanders, 182 Iowa 658, 661, 662, 164 N.W. 622, L.R.A.1918F, 1076;Turney v. Barr, 75 Iowa 758, 761-762, 38 N.W. 550;...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Ely v. Haugh
...as McCormick v. Hollowell, 215 Iowa 638, 246 N.W. 612, Convey v. Haynes, 230 Iowa 485, 298 N.W. 647, 134 A.L.R. 966, and Reeves v. Lainson, 234 Iowa 1034, 14 N.W.2d 625, which lay down the rule that if the sentencing court has jurisdiction of the person and the subject matter, habeas corpus......
-
Sieren v. Hildreth
...judgment of conviction. Bell v. Lainson, 247 Iowa 505, 74 N.W.2d 592; Meeks v. Lainson, 246 Iowa 1237, 71 N.W.2d 446; Reeves v. Lainson, 234 Iowa 1034, 14 N.W.2d 625; Mart v. Lainson, supra, 239 Iowa 21, 30 N.W.2d 305; 39 C.J.S. Habeas Corpus § 15; 25 Am.Jur., Habeas Corpus, § The only issu......
-
Moses, In re
...was no jurisdiction in the court, the judgment is not void and he cannot attack it collaterally by habeas corpus. Reeves v. Lainson, 234 Iowa 1034, 1035, 14 N.W.2d 625; Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461. As stated in Carpentier v. Lainson, 248 Iowa 1275, 84 N.W.2......