Corbert v. District Court of Arecibo
Corbert v. District Court of Arecibo
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Section 448 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Comp. Stat. 1911, sec. 6494) provides that:
“The court, unless good cause to the contrary is shown, shall order the prosecution to be dismissed in the following cases:
“1. Where a person has been held to answer for a public offense, if an information is not filed against him within sixty days thereafter. ’ ’
In the instant case an information for involuntary manslaughter was presented more than six months after defendant’s arrest and the district judge overruled a motion to dismiss the action. The motion was argued at the time of defendant’s arraignment, hut no evidence was introduced. The burden was on the district attorney to justify his failure to file an information within the statutory period. The motion should have been granted unless the admitted facts or those of which the court could take judicial notice amounted to good cause for delay. The record of the hearing does not show that in the oral argument any facts were expressly admitted or stated without objection. At the close of the argument each of the parties was given.five days within which to present a memorandum. Defendant filed his memorandum on the fifth day. The district attorney filed his a week later.
Prom defendant’s memorandum it appears that the district attorney, in his oral statement, relied upon the fact that when he assumed the duties of his office he found a previous investigation unfinished and was obliged to complete it. This apparently was the only showing made by the district attor
The district attorney in his memorandum also said that during May, June, and July the former district attorney had been engaged under instructions from the Attorney General’s office, in the investigation of slot machines and that during July, August, and September the court was in vacation. Again conceding, for the sake of argument only, that the court could take judicial knowledge of these facts set forth in a memorandum filed ten or twelve days after the
From the evidence introduced at the hearing, on a rule to show cause why the district judge had not obeyed an alternative writ of mandamus issued by this court, it appears: that on April 15, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, and 26, the former district attorney presented in open court and filed nineteen informa-tions, one of which was for involuntary manslaughter; that on May 8, 11, 16, 19, 22, and 26, he presented and filed eighteen informations, one of which was for involuntary manslaughter; that on June 2, 3, 15, 17, 24, 26, and 30 he presented and filed thirty-six informations, three of which were for involuntary manslaughter; that on July 13, 14, 19, 22, 28, and 31 he presented and filed twenty-one informations; and that at the opening of the special term, September 1, the new district attorney presented in open court and filed twenty-nine informations, two of which were for involuntary manslaughter.
The peremptory writ must be granted.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.