State ex rel. Wilson v. Briggs

• Decision Date: 29 November 1961
• Docket Number: No. 34250,34250
• Citation: 351 S.W.2d 892,171 Tex.Crim. 479
• Parties: STATE of Texas ex rel. Will WILSON, Attorney General of Texas, Frank Briscoe, District Attorney, Harris County, Texas, Samuel H. Robertson, Jr. and Neil McKay, Assistant District Attorneys, Harris County, Texas, Relators, v. Judge Cullen W. BRIGGS, District Judge, 117th Judicial District Court, Nueces County, Texas, Respondent.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 892

351 S.W.2d 892

171 Tex.Crim. 479

STATE of Texas ex rel. Will WILSON, Attorney General of

Texas, Frank Briscoe, District Attorney, Harris County,

Texas, Samuel H. Robertson, Jr. and Neil McKay, Assistant

District Attorneys, Harris County, Texas, Relators, v. Judge Cullen W. BRIGGS, District Judge, 117th Judicial

District Court, Nueces County, Texas, Respondent.

No. 34250.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

Nov. 29, 1961.

Percy Foreman, Houston, for relator.

Frank Briscoe, Dist. Atty., Samuel H. Robertson, Jr., Neil McKay, Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, and Will Wilson, Atty. Gen., of Texas, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

WOODLEY, Presiding Judge.

This is an action seeking the issuance of Writ of Prohibition against the Respondent Cullen W. Briggs, Judge of the 117th Judicial District Court of Nueces County, Texas.

On January 29, 1959, Howard B. Stickney was convicted in Harris County, Texas, of murder and his punishment was assessed at death. The conviction was affirmed by this Court. Stickney v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 336 S.W.2d 133, certiorari denied, 363 U.S. 807, 80 S.Ct. 1245, 4 L.Ed.2d 1151.

Mandate issued June 18, 1960, and sentence was pronounced in the trial court on June 27, 1960, to be executed on August 12, 1960.

Following various habeas corpus proceedings, during which Howard B. Stickney had received a number of stays of execution and reprieves, the execution of the death warrant was scheduled to be carried out before sunrise on June 10, 1961.

At 11:15 P. M. on June 9, 1961, the Respondent Cullen W. Briggs, Judge of the 117th Distrist Court, enjoined the execution and ordered Howard B. Stickney produced in his court at Corpus Christi, Texas, on June 14, 1961 for a hearing on a writ of habeas corpus. Hearing was had and the writ was granted, returnable before this Court. On October 11, 1961 we set aside the order staying the execution and denied the relief prayed for. Ex parts Stickney, Tex.Cr.App., 349 S.W.2d 732.

Mandate having issued and the Governor's reprieve having fixed October 27, 1961 as the execution date, the execution was stayed by order of District Judge E. D. Salinas who, like the Respondent, is the judge of a judicial district far removed from Harris County where Stickney was convicted. Judge Salinas stayed the execution upon what he correctly described as 'a legal and technical ground' bottomed upon the eleventh hour stay of execution granted by Judge Briggs.

On November 9, 1961, we set aside the order of Judge Salinas and denied the relief sought, noting in our opinion that Judge Salinas heard the application at the request of Judge Briggs, the Respondent herein. Ex parte Stickney, No. 34,220, Tex.Cr.App., 350 S.W.2d 564.

The last date set for the execution of the death warrant against Stickney was November 11, 1961.

Acting upon a petition presented to him eight minutes before midnight on November 10, 1961, Judge Briggs again stayed the execution and set a hearing in his court in Nueces County for November 21, 1961.

Relators' petition herein prayed for an order setting aside the order of Judge Briggs staying the execution, and an order directing Judge Briggs to take no further action or hold any further hearings on this application for habeas corpus.

We granted this relief on November 14, 1961 when we granted leave to file the petition herein.

Upon the Relators' further prayer, we ordered and directed the Respondent to refrain from taking any further action by entertaining an application for a writ of habeas corpus or otherwise with reference to Howard B. Stickney, and set hearing for November 22, 1961.

Howard B. Stickney and three of his attorneys were named as Respondents also, but in the petition no relief was prayed for as to them. We granted the Relators' motion to dismiss them from the cause, and denied their motion for leave to intervene.

The Respondent Judge Briggs filed answer and oral argument was presented in his behalf. There is no denial on the part of Judge Briggs of any purpose to further prevent or delay the execution of the judgment and sentence against Howard B. Stickney, nor any assurance that he will not again order the execution stayed upon allegations that have been adjudicated against Stickney by this Court.

Respondent challenges the authority of this Court to issue the writ of prohibition, contending that the granting thereof would suspend the writ of habeas corpus and do violence to the statutes and constitution of this state, and would be an unlawful infringement by this Court on the jurisdiction of the 117th District Court of Nueces County, Texas.

We do not agree with such contention. To the contrary, it appears that only by the granting of relief such as prayed for may the original jurisdiction of this Court in habeas corpus cases be enforced. In State ex rel. Looney, Attorney General v. Hamblen, District Judge, 74 Tex.Cr.R. 526, 169 S.W. 678, a similar writ was issued directing the respondent district judge to dismiss a habeas corpus proceeding and make no further order thereabout.

The Court of Criminal Appeals is the court of last resort in this state in criminal matters. This being so, no other court of this state has authority to overrule or circumvent its decisions, or disobey its mandates.

The Constitution of Texas, Article V, Sec. 5, Vernon's Ann.St., provides that this Court and the Judges thereof 'shall have the power to issue the writ of habeas corpus, and under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, issue such writs as may be necessary to enforce its own jurisdiction.'

The original jurisdiction of this Court to issue writs of habeas corpus is unlimited. Where the person claimed to be unlawfully restrained is under indictment, or has been finally convicted in a felony case, the authority of district judges in hadeas corpus proceedings is limited by Art. 119, C.C.P., Vernon's Ann.C.C.P. art. 119. After indictment and before conviction, the writ must be returnable in the county where the offense has been committed, on account of which the applicant stands indicted.

After final conviction in any felony case, the writ must be made returnable to this Court.

Art. 119, C.C.P. provides that the Court of Criminal Appeals may designate and direct any district judge or judges of this state to ascertain the facts necessary for proper consideration of the issues involved.

Respondent agrees that this Court has the authority to set aside and hold for naught stays of execution ordered by a district judge, yet he insists that he should not be prevented by order of this Court from again staying the execution at the eleventh hour, and thus deprive this Court of the opportunity to exercise such authority.

In this manner the Respondent has done, and may do, indirectly what he has no authority to do directly; that is, to stay the effectiveness of the decisions and mandates of this Court.

It is apparent from the records that Judge Briggs entertains a fixed conviction that Howard B. Stickney should not be executed. We assume that he is conscientious in his fixed determination to delay the execution of the death warrant until the orders of this Court be reviewed and Stickney's conviction be...