Stonefield v. Buchanan

• Decision Date: 03 February 1942
• Citation: 158 S.W.2d 970,289 Ky. 386
• Parties: STONEFIELD v. BUCHANAN.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

158 S.W.2d 970

289 Ky. 386

STONEFIELD v. BUCHANAN.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky

February 3, 1942

Appeal from Circuit Court, Lyons County; Ira D. Smith, Judge.

Habeas corpus proceeding by Roy Stonefield against W. Jess Buchanan. From a judgment denying a writ of habeas corpus, Roy Stonefield appeals.

Judgment affirmed.

Thomas W. Hardesty, of Newport, for appellant.

Hubert Meredith, Atty. Gen., and W. Owen Keller, Asst. Atty. Gen for appellee.

CAMMACK Justice.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the Lyons Circuit Court denying Roy Stonefield a writ of habeas corpus. The petition was submitted in that court by agreement of the parties upon the record made in the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Kentucky and other pleadings and stipulations. The grounds for the writ are: (1) That petitioner was deprived of adequate time to prepare a defense at the time of the trial of the case in the Campbell Circuit Court; (2) that he was unable adequately to prosecute an appeal, due to his inability to procure a bill of exceptions (3) that he attempted to present, through counsel, a bystander's bill, which was refused by the Court; (4) that his conviction violates the Constitution; and (5) that the judgment is void.

The case of Stonefield v. Commonwealth, 282 Ky. 692, 139 S.W.2d 752, sets forth fully the questions considered by this Court in affirming Stonefield's judgment of conviction in the Campbell Circuit Court. No bill of exceptions was filed by Stonefield, so we pointed out that we could look only to the record to determine whether there was a good and sufficient indictment. We said that the indictment was in apt language and followed the statute penalizing the offense of armed robbery with which Stonefield was charged.

In January, 1941, the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Kentucky denied the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus. Judge Miller's opinion in denying the writ, Ex parte Stonefield, 36 F.Supp. 453, 455, shows that he considered all of the grounds put forth by Stonefield in a thorough and careful manner. Following the denial of the writ in the District Court, Stonefield appealed to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, where the judgment of the District Court was affirmed. Stonefield v. Buchanan, 124 F.2d 23. It was after this that Stonefield filed his petition in the Lyons Circuit Court.

Judge Miller's opinion points out that, while Stonefield's appeal to this Court was in reality no appeal, as the question before him was not presented in the proceeding before us, it could have been presented by proper proceedings, and on that basis he felt that Stonefield's failure to have his matter reviewed by this Court was fatal to...