Ex Parte Hill

15 S.W.2d 14, 111 Tex. Crim. 426, 1929 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 84
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 27, 1929
DocketNo. 12259.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 15 S.W.2d 14 (Ex Parte Hill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex Parte Hill, 15 S.W.2d 14, 111 Tex. Crim. 426, 1929 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 84 (Tex. 1929).

Opinion

HAWKINS, Judge.

Appellant was indicted in Harris County charged with murder. The venue was changed to Brazos County where a trial was had but the jury failed to reach a verdict. The venue was then changed to Falls County where appellant was found guilty of an aggravated assault and battery and his punishment assessed at confinement in the county jail for forty-five days. An appeal was taken to this court and the judgment affirmed. Mandate from this court reached the district clerk in Falls County on the ninth day of June, 1928, at which time appellant surrendered and was placed in jail. Upon October 1st, 1928 he sought release by habeas corpus proceedings and was remanded from which judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

The costs accruing to officers and witnesses in the district court of Harris County and in the district court of Brazos County and in the district court of Falls County prior to appellant’s conviction of a misdemeanor were properly and legally claimed by said officers and witnesses, their bills approved by the respective district judges as a charge against the State of Texas, and so far as the record here shows were all paid by the state long before appellant was placed in jail, except the sum of $87.70 which amount was taxed as costs against appellant upon the trial in Falls County. This amount appears to have been properly taxed against appellant upon the trial which resulted in a conviction of a misdemeanor. At any rate, no question is raised with reference thereto. The costs which had theretofore been paid by the state — while the (murder) felony *428 charge was pending — aggregate $1,471.20. The judgment entered against appellant recites that he was not only adjudged to serve the forty-five days in the county jail of Falls County, but that all costs of the prosecution, including the $1,471.20 were adjudged against him and provided that execution and capias pro fine should issue for the collection of such costs.

We assume from the record that Falls County has no county farm, workhouse or public improvements where convicts may be put to work under the provisions of Article 794 C. C. P. and that after appellant had served the forty-five days in jail to satisfy that part of the judgment he was being further held in said jail to satisfy the costs at the rate of one dollar per day as provided in Article 793, C. C. P., as amended at the First Called Session of the 40th Legislature, page 194.

It is appellant’s contention that he can not be legally held in jail at the rate of one dollar per day to satisfy the costs or any part thereof which had been previously paid by the state. This exact point seems to have been decided adversely to appellant’s contention iti Ex parte Spiller, 63 Tex. Cr. R. 93, 138 S. W. 1039. It is the second question considered in the opinion in said case. It was not discussed at any length. Our investigation of the matter leads us to conclude that upon this point the Spiller case is erroneous and arose from a misconstruction of what are now Articles 1018 and 1019, C. C. P. These articles appear at the beginning of Chapter II of Title 15, C. C. P., relating to costs paid by the state. They would not be so liable to create confusion, we think, if they followed, rather than preceded the other provisions of said chapter which fix the fees of various officers and witnesses in felony cases and provides the method of collecting them from the state. The Legislature did not overlook the very contingency which here arose — where the charge against accused was a felony but final conviction was for a misdemeanor..

Article 1019 C. C. P. reads :

“If the defendant is indicted for a felony and convicted of a misdemeanor, no costs shall be paid by the State to any officer.”

And Article 1018 C. C. P. is as follows:

“When the defendant is convicted, the costs and fees paid by the State under this title shall be a charge against him, except when sentenced to death or to imprisonment for life, and when collected shall be paid into the State Treasury.”

This article provides for reimbursing the State Treasury if the fees theretofore paid by the State could ever be collected from ac *429 cused. Carrying out this same purpose to reimburse the State Treasury under such contingency Article 1027 C. C. P. was also enacted, which reads as follows:

“In all cases when the defendant shall be finally convicted of a misdemeanor, the Sheriff shall return to the State Treasurer a sum of money equal to the amount he received from the Staté in such case, and the sheriff and his bondsmen shall be responsible to the State for such sum. In such cases all fees received by the district clerk shall be refunded by him to the State.”

Appellant having been finally convicted of a misdemeanor only we must go to the provisions of the statute for the proper judgment in such cases. Articles 783 and 784 C. C. P. read:

“When the defendant is only fined the judgment shall be that the State of Texas recover of the defendant the amount of such fine and all costs of the prosecution,, and that the defendant, if present, be committed to jail until such fine and costs are paid; or if the defendant be not present, that a capias forthwith issue, commanding the sheriff to arrest the defendant and commit him to jail until such fine and costs are paid; also that execution may issue against the property of such defendant for the amount of such fine and costs.

“If the punishment is any other than a fine, the judgment shall specify it, and order it enforced by the proper process. It shall also adjudge the costs against the defendant, and order the collection thereof as in other cases.”

Providing for the manner of enforcing the judgment Article 791 C. C. P. reads:

“In each case of pecuniary fine, an execution may issue for the fine and costs, though a capias was issued for the defendant; and a capias may issue for the defendant though an execution was issued against his property. The execution shall be collected and returned as in civil actions. When the execution has been collected, the defendant shall be at once discharged; and whenever the fine and costs have been legally discharged in any way, the execution shall be returned satisfied.”

For the further enforcement of the judgment — if the fine and costs are not paid or the costs are not paid where the punishment is by imprisonment in the county jail — we must then look to Article 793 C. C. P., which, as amended by the First Called Session of the 40th Legislature, reads:

"When a defendant is convicted of a misdemeanor and his punishment is assessed at a pecuniary fine, if he is unable to pay the fine and costs adjudged against him, he may for such time as will satisfy the *430 judgment be put to work in the workhouse, or on the county farm, or public improvements of the county, as provided in the succeeding article, or if there be no such workhouse, farm or improvement, he shall be imprisoned in jail for a sufficient length of time to discharge the full amount of fine and costs adjudged against him; rating such labor or imprisonment at One Dollar for each day thereof; provided that the provisions of this Act shall not apply to counties not having poor farms.”

We revert now to Article 1018 C. C. R.

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Bluebook (online)
15 S.W.2d 14, 111 Tex. Crim. 426, 1929 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-hill-texcrimapp-1929.