Ex parte Ferrá
Ex parte Ferrá
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the conrt.
On July 2, 1942, the appellant, through Attorney E. Pé-rez Casalduc, filed in the lower court a petition for habeas .corpus, alleging that he had been deprived of his liberty by -the warden of the Municipal Jail of Arecibo and that the .illegality of his imprisonment consisted in that he had not committed any offense. The writ was issued immediately, and the hearing having been set for two o ’clock in the afternoon of that same day, the respondent appeared and brought
After the evidence of the district attorney had been heard, consisting of respondent’s testimony and of the order of imprisonment which we have already mentioned, the court informed the petitioner that his petition for habeas corpus was insufficient, and granted him leave to amend the same, which petitioner refused. He insisted, through his attorney, that his petition was sufficient. The petitioner did not adduce any evidence and the lower judge under the title of “Decision” rendered judgment denying the petition for habeas corpus. From that judgment the present appeal has been taken.
The petition for habeas corpus is clearly insufficient. It is not alleged therein that the judge who issued the order of. imprisonment lacked jurisdiction to render the same or that the order of imprisonment was for any other reason void or that there did not exist probable cause for the arrest of the petitioner. It is true that the defendant alleged that he had not committed any offense, but that allegation does not necessarily mean that there did not exist any probable cause against him. The innocence or guilt of the defendant should not be determined within a habeas corpus proceeding, but at a proper trial.
For the reasons stated, the appeal must be denied and the judgment appealed from affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.