Tahash v. Clements

• Decision Date: 05 April 1955
• Docket Number: No. 29215,29215
• Citation: Tahash v. Clements, 125 N.E.2d 439, 234 Ind. 197 (Ind. 1955)
• Parties: Ralph TAHASH, as Superintendent of Indiana Reformatory, Appellant. v. Robert CLEMENTS, Appellee.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Page 439

125 N.E.2d 439

234 Ind. 197

Ralph TAHASH, as Superintendent of Indiana Reformatory, Appellant. v.Robert CLEMENTS, Appellee.

No. 29215.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

April 5, 1955.

Edwin K. Steers, Atty. Gen., Richard M. Givan, Deputy Atty. Gen., for appellant.

James C. Cooper, Public Defender, Rushville, Perry W. Cross, Asst. Public Defender, Munice, for appellee.

LEVINE, Judge.

On a hearing on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, in the Madison Circuit Court, the appellee was discharged from custody of appellant, Superintendent of the Indiana Reformatory.

The facts, as stipulated, were as follows: The petitioner(appellee herein) was committed to the Indiana Reformatory, for second degree burglary, for a period of two years, by a judgment of the Boone Circuit Court, on August 5, 1952.On September 19, 1952, the trial court purported to correct the commitment, providing for an indeterminate sentence of two to five years.No notice was given the petitioner(appellee), no hearing was had, and appellee was not present in court when the court changed the commitment.

Under § 10-701(b), Burns' 1942 Replacement, the sentence should have been indeterminate, two to five years, and the court had a duty, by proper procedure, to correct the commitment.

Under § 9-1827, Burns' 1942 Replacement, the Legislature has provided for the correction of a sentence wrongfully imposed.Nevertheless, the proper and only constitutional means of correcting the sentence was to do so on notice and in the presence of the prisoner and his counsel, if one there be.The only constitutional interpretation possible of this statute would be that it authorizes the correction of an erroneous sentence, but the proper procedure must include notice to the prisoner and his presence in court when the change of sentence is ordered.His day in court includes this appearance.The statute, taken alone, cannot change a sentence by the court.The handing down of a sentence is not a ministerial act, but is a judicial act.

Section 9-2202, Burns' 1942 Replacement, provides:

'For the purpose of judgment, if the conviction be for an offense punishable by death or imprisonment, the defendant must be personally present * * *.'

If the facts stipulated by the parties be true, the purported corrected judgment of September 19, 1952, is void, as the Boone Circuit Court was without jurisdiction to enter the same at a later term when there were no formal proceedings, timely taken, to correct the judgment.

When the Boone Circuit Court attempted to change the sentence, in the absence of appellee and his counsel, and without any notice to appellee, its action was void, as the court had deprived appellee of his constitutional rights, and thereby had no jurisdiction to change the judgment.State v. Lindsey, 1952, 231 Ind. 126, 133, 106 N.E.2d 230;Sweet v. State, 1954, Ind., 117 N.E.2d 745;Constitution of Indiana, Art. 1, §§ 12and13;Constitution of the United States, 14thAmendment, § 1.

The appellee was being confined pursuant to the purported corrected judgment of September 19, 1952, as his two-year sentence, prescribed in the judgment of August 5, 1952, had expired.Habeas corpus was therefore the proper remedy.De Hart v. Blande, 1954, Ind., 122 N.E.2d 90, and cases cited therein;Witte v. Dowd, 1952, 230 Ind. 485, 102 N.E.2d 630.

If a prisoner is held in prison after the term for which he may be legally held has expired, he may be released under a writ of habeas corpus.Peed v. Brewster, 1907, 168 Ind. 51, 79 N.E. 1039.

The State has challenged the jurisdiction of the Madison Circuit Court over these proceedings in habeas corpus, since the commitment was made by another court of concurrent jurisdiction.However, an exception to the rule has been made where the judgment of the original trial court is void for lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter or person, and such fact appears in...