Barrett v. State
Barrett v. State
Opinion of the Court
Petitioner was, on July 31. 1920, tried in the Jefferson county court of misdemeanors, on an affidavit dated the same day, charging vagrancy. She was convicted, fined ?25, and as additional punishment was sentenced to 12 months hard labor for the county. A note is made as a part of the judgment, “An agreement to leave town;” also following the judgment and not a part thereof, “Twelve months suspended pending her good behavior and passed thirty days.” Each 30 days thereafter until and including October 30th the entry was regularly made on the docket of the court, “Passed thirty days.” On October 7th alias warrant was issued, and case set October 12th. On November 5th, the case having been passed by regular orders to that time, the court entered an order of commitment for execution of the sentence of July 31, 1920.
“That the court shall be opened at the discretion of the judge of said court any day during the week (except Sunday) for the trial of offenses committed within the jurisdiction of said court, but no person shall be tried on the same day or the next day after his arrest without his consent.”
This is not a jurisdictional requirement, but establishes a rule of practice in the court, which, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, this court will presume was complied with in the trial of the petitioner.
We have, then, in the case at bar, a valid judgment of conviction against the defendant which includes a sentence to hard labor, which sentence began on the day of the rendition judgment, to wit, July 31, 1920 (Scottsboro v. Johnston, 121 Ala. 397, 25 South. 809), but no part of which has been served. Under the Johnston Case, supra, it would seem that in any event the termination of the sentence would be one year from July 31, 1920. The question then presented here is whether or not the petitioner could be taken into custody by the authorities and compelled to serve the unexpired part of the sentence after he had been let to go by the court rendering the judgment. This particular question does not appear to have been decided by the Supreme Court of this state, but in other jurisdictions the decisions are in hopeless conflict. But this court, in the case of Daley v. City of Decatur, 90 South. 69, 1 has placed itself in line with those states, holding that, in such a case as the one at bar, the trial court has lost jurisdiction, and hence the petitioner is entitled to her discharge.
It follows that the trial judge erred in denying the petitioner the relief prayed. The judgment is reversed, and a judgment will here be entered discharging petitioner.
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Ante, p. 111.
Addendum
On Rehearing.
On application for rehearing, the court has reached the conclusion that it was in error in holding on the *248 original submission that the trial court had lost jurisdiction and control as to the judgment of conviction.
The judgment was therefore kept under the jurisdiction and control of the court by virtue of the original judgment entry, and by the subsequent orders of continuance as appear upon the record. The trial court therefore had the power to alter or amend the judgment or the order as to sentence at any time between the original date of sentence, and when the trial judge ordered and directed that the sentence be executed. This being-true, the circuit court ruled correctly in denying the petitioner her writ of habeas corpus and in committing her back to the custody of the officers and agencies of the law to execute the sentence in accordance with the judgment and orders of the court.
Moreover, it is not disputed, and was decided on the original hearing in this case, that this “defendant stands convicted before a court of competent jurisdiction of the crime of vagrancy and sentenced to hard labor for the county of Jefferson for the term of 12 months.” Under the very terms of that judgment the sentence of hard labor will not expire until the 31st day of July, 1921. Hence, if the entry which we quoted above was not a part of the original judgment, but was void, still there' would be a valid judgment and sentence, the terms of which had not expired when the alias warrant was issued on October 12, or on November 5, when the court entered another order directing the execution of the original sentence of July 31, 1920.
This court and the Supreme Court have repeatedly refused to discharge defendants j and prisoners from custody where there was a valid judgment but an irregular or void sentence; and in such cases they reversed the case back to judgment, with directions to the trial court to enter proper orders of sentence. See Ex parte Smith, 1 Ala. App. 535, 56 South. 247; Haley’s Case, 1 Ala. App. 533, 56 South. 245; Ossie, v. State, 147 Ala. 152, 41 South. 945; Ex parte State, 76 Ala. 482.
This case is distinguished from the case of Haley v. City of Decatur, 90 South. 69, 2 and the case of Scottsboro v. Johnston, 121 Ala. 397, 25 South. 809, cited in the opinion on the original hearing, for the reason that in those cases the trial court’ had no statutory or common-law'right or power to either suspend the imposition or the execution of the sentence, and hence the acts, orders, or quasi judgments of the court in those eases were tantamount to a discharge of the defendant or prisoner from custody; and hence there was no order, judgment, or sentence of any court of competent jurisdiction in those cases which authorized the detention and custody of the prisoner at the time of bringing of the habeas corpus.
There is a great distinction between the power of the court to suspend absolutely and indefinitely a sentence from the power to temporarily or conditionally suspend the execution, or to keep the judgment or sentence within the control of the court for the time and. in the manner provided by law. .This court expressly decided in the case of Vinson v. State, 16 Ala. App. 536, 79 South. 310. that section 7628 of Code 1907 was not un *249 ■constitutional, and not an invasion of tlio pardoning power.
Section 23 of the act creating this court (Local Acts 1919, p. 128) expressly authorizes the trial court to suspend the execution of sentence conditionally, and temporarily, and we find no order or judgment of the court that was not authorized hy this statute. It therefore follows that the application for rehearing must be granted, that the judgment of reversal be set aside, and a judgment of affirmance entered.
Application granted.
Affirmed.
Ante, p. 141.
Addendum
Upon a consideration of this application I concur in the conclusion reached by the majority that the petitioner should not be discharged, but, adhering to the views expressed in the original opinion, I still am of the opinion that the court had lost jurisdiction of the sentence, and petitioner’s future confinement should date from the date of the original sentence.
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