Ex Parte Bowes

1912 OK CR 397, 127 P. 20, 8 Okla. Crim. 201, 1912 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 406
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 19, 1912
DocketNo. A-1308.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 1912 OK CR 397 (Ex Parte Bowes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex Parte Bowes, 1912 OK CR 397, 127 P. 20, 8 Okla. Crim. 201, 1912 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 406 (Okla. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

DOYLE, J.

This is a petition for a writ qf habeas corpus wherein the petitioner, T. C. Bowes, alleges that he is illegally restrained of his liberty. The facts of the case as they appear .from the pleadings are substantially as follows: . .

On the 14th day of July, 1911, the petitioner was convicted in the county court of Custer county of selling intoxicating liquors in violation of the prohibition law, and was sentenced to 30 days’ imprisonment in the county jail and to pay a fine of $100 and to pay the costs taxed at $64.40, and, in default of payment of said fine and costs, that the defendant be further imprisoned in the county jail until the fine and costs are satisfied' by one day’s confinement for every $2 of the fine and costs. On the same day the clerk of the county court delivered to the sheriff a commitment, and on the same day the sheriff arrested the petitioner and committed him to the county jail. The petition was filed in this court August 14, 1911. A writ of habeas corpus was properly issued on said petition, returnable on the 29th day of said month, and it was ordered that pending the hearing petitioner be admitted to bail in the sum of $300. There was also filed a waiver of the presence of the petitioner. The respondent, sheriff of Custer county, made return in part as follows:

“That the petitioner, T. C. Bowes, was committed to my custody on the 14th day of July, 1911, in accordance with a judgment rendered in the county court of said Custer county and a commitment issued out of said court on said date; that his jail sentence expired at midnight on the 12th day of August, 1911, and that since said last-named date I hold said T. C. Bowes under said judgment and commitment for the nonpayment of his fine and costs, and will continue to hold him in my custody, as I now hold him, till said fine and costs are liquidated at the rate *203 of one day for each $2.00 of said fine and costs, unless I am ordered to release him by some court of competent jurisdiction.”

Counsel for petitioner contend:

“That the imprisonment to satisfy the fine and costs is illegal, because the sentence is for imprisonment and a fine, and there is no statute to warrant imprisonment in the matter of such judgments for nonpayment of the fine, or imprisonment for nonpayment of the costs.”

Counsel cite to our attention the following provisions of the Constitution and statutes to support their contention: Const, art. 1, sec. 7 (section 8, Williams’), relative to unlawful sale of intoxicating liquors, provides 'as a punishment:

“By fine not less than fifty dollars and by imprisonment not less than thirty days for each offense.”

Section 4180 (Comp. Laws 1909) of the Prohibition Law provides:

“A violation of any provisions of this section shall be a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars, and by imprisonment for not less than thirty days, nor more than six months.”

Section 6917, Comp. Laws 1909, Procedure Criminal, provides :

“A judgment that the defendant pay a fine may also direct that he be imprisoned until the fine is satisfied, specifying the extent of the imprisonment, which cannot exceed one day for every two dollars of the fine,” (St. 1890, sec. 5725.)

Section 6918, Comp. Laws 1909, provides:

“A judgment that the defendant pay a fine constitutes a lien, also, in like manner, as a judgment rendered for money, rendered in a civil action.” (St. 1890, sec. 5726.)

Section 6921, Comp. Laws 1909, provides:

“If the judgment is for a fine alone, execution may issue thereon as on a judgment in a civil action.” (St. 1890, sec. 5729.)

Section 6922, Comp. Laws 1909, provides:

“If the judgment be imprisonment, or fine and imprisonment until such fine be paid, the defendant must forthwith be committed to the custody of the proper officer, and by him detained until the judgment be complied with.” (St. 1890, sec. 5730.)

*204 Counsel contend, and we concede correctly, that these procedure criminal statutes were enacted in 1890 at the session commencing August 23 d, and were copied verbatim from the Code of Criminal Procedure of Dakota Territory, and Dakota adopted her Code from California in 1885; and both statutes are the same and are interpreted in the case of In re Rosenheim, 83 Cal. 388, 23 Pac. 372, which was decided on March 6, 1890, wherein the Supreme Court of California interprets the sections above quoted, and holds:

“Pen. Code Cal. sec. 1205, which provides that judgment that defendant ‘pay a fine’ may also- direct that he be imprisoned until the fine be satisfied, does not apply to those cases in which the court has imposed a term of imprisonment and also a fine, but it applies only to these cases in which the fine stands alone as a punishment. People v. Righetti [66 Cal. 184] 4 Pac. [1063] 1185, overruled.”

And in People v. Brown, 113 Cal. 35, 45 Pac. 181, we have these sections construed, and the court says:

“We have repeatedly held that where a judgment of imprisonment has been rendered, and also a judgment of fine, there can be no imprisonment to satisfy the fine.”

And it is insisted by counsel for petitioner that, since these sections of our criminal procedure act were adopted originally from California, we adopted the construction placed thereon by the courts of the latter state, which had been rendered before the adoption of the statute. The principal question presented for determination in this case is, Was the county court authorized to adjudge the defendant to be confined in the county jail for a failure to pay the fine?

We are of the opinion that where the punishment for an offense is both fine and imprisonment, under the common-law practice and under the statute also (section 6917, supra), the trial court may properly adjudge the defendant, for a failure to pay the fine, to be imprisoned, such imprisonment to commence after the expiration of the term fixed as a punishment for the crime. It is provided in the Bill of Rights, Const, art. 2, sec. 13 (section 21, Williams’), that:

“Imprisonment for debt is prohibited, except for the nonpayment of fines and penalties -imposed for the violation of law.”

*205 “Under the common-law practice, wherever a court has power to impose a fine it has the power to compel the payment thereof by the imprisonment of the party fined.” (19 Cyc. 551.)

We fully concede that the rule relied upon, “when one state adopts the statute of another, it adopts only the construction placed thereon by the courts of the latter state which have been rendered before the adoption of the statute” (Barnes v. Lynch, 9 Okla. 156, 59 Pac. 995), is the general rule of statutory construction, but to this well-known rule of construction there are numerous exceptions, as was said by Mr. Justice Porter, delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court of Kansas in the case of State v. Campbell, 73 Kan. 688, 85 Pac. 784, 9 L. R. A. (N.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1912 OK CR 397, 127 P. 20, 8 Okla. Crim. 201, 1912 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 406, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-bowes-oklacrimapp-1912.