State ex rel. Taylor v. Boles

• Decision Date: 07 May 1963
• Docket Number: No. 12234,12234
• Citation: 130 S.E.2d 693,147 W.Va. 701
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE ex rel. William TAYLOR v. Otto C. BOLES, Warden, West Virginia Penitentiary.

Page 693

130 S.E.2d 693

147 W.Va. 701

STATE ex rel. William TAYLOR v. Otto C. BOLES, Warden, West Virginia Penitentiary.

No. 12234.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Argued April 30, 1963.

Decided May 7, 1963.

Syllabus by the Court

1. 'The Statutes embraced in Chapter 49, Code, 1931, as amended, are in pari materia and, when read together, show a clear legislative intent to protect and reclaim, rather than punish, a juvenile who committed an offense prior to his sixteenth birthday, and, except for a capital offense, to prohibit the trial of such juvenile in any court other than a juvenile court.' Point 2, Syllabus, State ex rel. Slatton v. Boles, Warden, W.Va. .

2. 'Where a person is tried in a court other than a juvenile court for an offense which he committed prior to his sixteenth birthday and is there convicted, such conviction is void for the reason that such court had no jurisdiction over that offense, the jurisdiction thereover resting exclusively in the juvenile court.' Point 6, Syllabus, State ex rel. Slatton v. Boles, Warden, W.Va. .

3. 'One imprisoned in consequence of a sentence which is void may obtain his release from such imprisonment by a habeas corpus proceeding.' Point 3, Syllabus, State ex rel. Firestone v. Adams, Warden, 145 W.Va. 194 .

Mario J. Palumbo, Charleston, for relator.

George H. Mitchell, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charleston, for respondent.

BROWNING, Judge.

Upon application of the relator, William Taylor, this Court issued a writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, returnable April 30, 1963, and appointed counsel to represent him before this Court. On the return day, the respondent appeared by George H. Mitchell, Assistant Attorney General, who stated in open court that the state would make no defense to the facts alleged in the petition and the case was submitted upon the petition and the brief filed in behalf of relator by appointed counsel.

The petition alleges that: Relator was indicated by the grand jury attending the September, 1957, term of the Intermediate Court of Kanawha County for the offense of breaking and entering on July ___, 1957; on October 14, 1957, he answered to said indictment, after waiving the assistance of counsel, by pleading guilty thereto; on February 11, 1959, relator was sentenced to an indeterminate term of one to ten years in the penitentiary of this state, which sentence he is presently serving; and, at the time of the alleged commission of the offense on July ___, 1957, relator was under the age of sixteen years.

Attached to the petition, as exhibits, are: A certified copy of the birth certificate of relator showing the date of his birth to be August 14, 1941; a certified copy of an order of the Intermediate Court of Kanawha County, entered October 14, 1957, reciting the waiver of counsel and subsequent plea of guilty of relator to an indictment for felony (breaking and entering); and, a certified copy of an order of the Intermediate Court of Kanawha County, entered February 11, 1959, revoking the...