Scott v. Chichester

• Decision Date: 23 January 1908
• Citation: 60 S.E. 95,107 Va. 933
• Parties: SCOTT . v. CHICHESTER, Sergeant
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

60 S.E. 95

107 Va. 933

SCOTT .

v.CHICHESTER, Sergeant

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Jan. 23, 1908.

Criminal Law—Punishment—Term of Imprisonment—Inclusion of Time of Parole. Where a prisoner who had been paroled on good behavior thereafter defaulted and was remanded to jail, he was entitled to be discharged on expiration of the period of his sentence, counting the time during which he was on parole, and he could not be held for the period of his sentence, not counting the time while on parole.

[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 15, Criminal Law, § 3313.]

Error to Corporation Court of Fredericksburg.

Habeas corpus by George Scott, alias Dinkey Scott, against J. C. Chichester, sergeant of the city of Fredericksburg. From a judgment remanding prisoner to the custody of the sergeant, he brings error. Reversed, and prisoner discharged.

Carter & Carter and F. W. Coleman, for plaintiff in error.

G. R. Swift, for defendant in error.

CARDWELL, J. George Scott, alias Dinkey Scott, filed a petition in the corporation court of the city of Fredericksburg, complaining that he was unlawfully detained in the custody of J. C. Chichester, sergeant of said city, and praying for a writ of habeas corpus from that court, which was awarded; and upon the answer of the sergeant being filed the court refused to discharge the prisoner and remanded him to the custody of the sergeant. To that judgment this writ of error was awarded.

From the answer of the sergeant of the city of Fredericksburg it appears that on the 21st day of March, 1907, the prisoner was sentenced in the corporation court of the city of Fredericksburg to a term of eight months in the jail of that city for an unlawful assault; that on the 10th day of August following counsel for the prisoner moved the court to suspend the sentence and judgment against the prisoner, and upon the hearing of this motion the court granted it, and allowed the sergeant (who is the jailer) of the city to permit the prisoner to leave the confines of the prison and to go at large—the motion being granted, it would seem, because the prisoner's health required that he should be permitted to have fresh air and outdoor exercise; that on the 28th of October, 1907, the prisoner was tried before the mayor of the city of Fredericksburg on a charge of fighting, and was found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine of $5 and the costs of the prosecution, which he immediately paid, and upon the suggestion of the attorney forthe commonwealth that the prisoner was out of jail on probation he was by the mayor remanded to jail to await the action of the corporation court; that on the 1st day of November the prisoner was brought before the corporation court of the city of Fredericksburg and placed at bar in the custody of the sergeant, and his counsel moved the judge of the court to rehear the evidence before the mayor on which the prisoner had been convicted by the mayor; but this motion was either withdrawn or the court refused to consider it, except in the nature of an appeal from the decision of the mayor's court, and upon the hearing it was held that the prisoner "had violated the term of his parole of August 10th, " and...