Ex Parte Carson
Ex Parte Carson
Opinion of the Court
The defendant, being confined in the Calhoun county jail by virtue of a mittimus or commitment issued to the jailer by Hon. Thos. W. Coleman, Jr., judge of probate and ex officio judge of the county court, issued after a hearing before said judge charging the defendant with robbery, filed a petition before Hon. Hugh D. Merrill, judge of the circuit court of Calhoun county, alleging that he was unlawfully deprived of his liberty, and praying that he be allowed bail. Upon the return of the writ, after answer filed by the jailer, and after hearing the testimony in the cause, the trial judge denied the petition, and from such ruling petitioner appeals to this court.
“A defendant cannot be admitted to bail when he is charged with an offense which may be punished by death, if the court or magistrate is of the opinion, on the evidence adduced, that he is guilty of the offense in the degree punished capitally.”
It is true that the offense charged may he punished capitally, but a reading of the testimony clearly convinces us that no judge or court would sustain a conviction thereunder carrying with it the death penalty, and while in cases of this kind the accused must be presumed to be guilty in the highest degree, yet such presumption in this case is overcome, as we have said by the proof. Ex parte Vaughan, 44 Ala. 417.
For. the reasons set out, the petitioner should have been allowed hail.
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Ex Parte Carson.
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- 5 cases
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- Published