Williams v. Moore
Decision Date | 05 February 1959 |
Docket Number | No. 17272.,17272. |
Citation | 262 F.2d 335 |
Parties | Junior Lee WILLIAMS v. H. E. MOORE, Warden, Texas Department of Corrections. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Thomas H. Dent, Galveston, Tex., for appellant.
B. H. Timmins, Jr., and Linward Shivers, Asst. Attys. Gen., Will Wilson, Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Before HUTCHESON, Chief Judge, and RIVES and WISDOM, Circuit Judges.
This appeal is from a judgment declining to grant the writ of habeas corpus or to enter a show cause order. The appellant was convicted of rape in the District Court of Wharton County, Texas, on the 16th day of March 1956. His punishment was fixed at death. On appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, the judgment was affirmed.1 Two motions for rehearing were overruled. The District Court of Wharton County, Texas, then pronounced a death sentence upon appellant and directed that it be executed at the State Penitentiary at Huntsville, Texas, on April 24, 1957.
On March 26, 1957, without any request from appellant, the Honorable Price Daniel, Governor of Texas, granted a constitutional reprieve as follows:
Upon application of appellant's counsel, the Honorable Hugo L. Black, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered an order on April 22, 1957, staying the execution to and including May 7, 1957. On May 21, 1957, Justice Black entered an order further staying the execution pending the Supreme Court's disposition of a petition for writ of certiorari. On October 14, 1957, the Supreme Court denied certiorari.2
The stays of execution having expired, the District Court of Wharton County, Texas, by order entered on November 22, 1957, set December 24, 1957, as the date for the execution of appellant's sentence. On December 16, a petition for habeas corpus was filed in the District Court of Wharton County, Texas, and a hearing was set for December 23, 1957. That Court, however, reconsidered and denied the application for habeas corpus without hearing on December 17. On December 19, the Presiding Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, after consulting his brethren, refused to permit appellant to file a petition for habeas corpus in that Court. On December 20, a petition for habeas corpus was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. That Court thereupon stayed the execution of appellant's sentence pending final disposition of the habeas corpus proceeding and directed the respondent to answer and petitioner to reply so that a record might be developed upon which petitioner's rights might be intelligently and certainly determined and reviewed, citing Baker v. Ellis, 5 Cir., 1952, 194 F.2d 865. By memorandum3 and order dated February 21, 1958, the United States District Court declined to grant the writ or to enter a show cause order. This appeal followed.
Appellant insists upon three "Points of Error":
I. Appellant's first and main proposition is elaborated in brief as follows:
We do not agree. The judgment of the District Court of Wharton County, Texas, in appellant's case and the sentence pronounced by that Court remain in effect and unsatisfied. That Court, in substance, held that it was clothed with inherent power and authority to assign a new date for the execution of appellant's sentence.4
It is conceded that the Texas statutes do not specifically provide for the setting of a new date for the execution of the death sentence pronounced against the appellant. As has been stated, the Court of...
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