Ex Parte Olden

1948 OK CR 108, 199 P.2d 228, 88 Okla. Crim. 56, 1948 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 256
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 3, 1948
DocketNo. A-11097.
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 1948 OK CR 108 (Ex Parte Olden) 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 Olden, 1948 OK CR 108, 199 P.2d 228, 88 Okla. Crim. 56, 1948 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 256 (Okla. Ct. App. 1948).

Opinion

JONES, J.

The petitioner, McKinley Olden, complains that he is illegally restrained of his liberty in the Oklahoma State Reformatory at Granite.

In the verified petition, it is alleged:

“That on or about the 25th day of September, 1945, your petitioner was convicted of the offense of Robbery in Cause No. 17258 in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, and was thereupon sentenced to serve a term of seven years in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, Oklahoma; that on or about the 25th day of September, 1945, your petitioner was convicted of the *59 offense of Attempted Burglary in the First Degree in Cause No. 17245 in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma and was thereupon sentenced to serve the term of two years in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, Oklahoma; that on or about the 25th day of September, 1945 your petitioner was convicted of the offense of Attempted Burglary in the First Degree in Cause No. 17257 in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma and was thereupon sentenced to serve the term of two years in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at Mc-Alester, Oklahoma; that on or about the 25th day of September, 1945, your petitioner was convicted of the offense of Grand Larceny in the First Degree in Cause No. 17244 in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma and was thereupon sentenced to serve the term of two years in the Oklahoma State Penittentiary at Mc-Alester, Oklahoma; that your petitioner was thereafter transported to and was received by the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, Oklahoma on the 3rd day of October, 1945. That several months thereafter, the exact day being unknown to your petitioner, he was convicted of the offense of Escape From the Sub-Prison in Cause No. 2572 in the District Court of Atoka County, Oklahoma and was thereupon sentenced to serve a term of two years in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at Mc-Alester, Oklahoma. That thereafter and just immediately prior to the 31st day of December, 1946, the State Board of Affairs, made an illegal order transferring your petitioner from the Penitentiary at McAlester to said Reformatory at Granite.”

The petitioner contends that under the statutes of Oklahoma and by reason of the judgments and sentences pronounced against him, he being a confirmed criminal, may not be kept at the said Oklahoma State Reformatory, but should be returned to the penitentiary at Mc-Alester.

At the hearing before this court, the facts showed that the petitioner, in addition to having been convict *60 ed of the various offenses hereinabove set forth, had served •a term of imprisonment in a United States Penitentiary by reason of a conviction for a felony by a General Court Martial of the Navy.

Petitioner cites and relies as his authority, the case of Ex parte Neighbors, 85 Okla. Cr. 183, 187 P. 2d 276. The Attorney General in his brief asks this court to re: consider the opinion rendered in Ex parte Neighbors, supra, and contends the State Board of Public Affairs, as the administrative agency created by law to handle the custody of prisoners convicted of crime, may make such transfer of prisoners as was made in the instant case under the statutes so as to effectively handle the large prison population of the state.

We assumed original jurisdiction because of the public importance of the question involved and for the reason that the Attorney General contended that considerable confusion had arisen over the administration of the affairs of the two penitentiaries since the decision in Ex parte Neighbors, supra.

It is the contention of the Attorney General that section 105, Tit. 57 O.S. 1941, had been repealed prior to the preparation of the revised code in 1941, and that its inclusion in the 1941 code was erroneous and to treat said section as being in effect was contrary to the decision of this court in the case of Thomas v. State, 83 Okla. Cr. 25, 172 P. 2d 651, wherein it was held that a statute that had been held unconstitutional or repealed was not reenacted or validated by its inclusion in the 1941 code.

To properly understand the question presented, it is necessary to make a complete review of the statutes *61 pertaining to the creation, management, and control of our penal institutions.

By House Bill 715, Session Laws 1907, P. 264, the Legislature established a Board of Control, composed of the Governor, the Attorney General and the President of the Board of Agriculture, who should be vested with authority to arrange for the removal and transfer back to the State of Oklahoma of prisoners from this state who were serving terms in the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing, Kansas. By sections 1 and 2 of the act the board was vested with authority to arrange for the custody and imprisonment of such prisoners “at such place or places as said board of control may deem to the best interest of the State.”

In 1909, the Legislature adopted two bills establishing, respectively, the State Reformatory and the State Penitentiary. House Bill 150 established the reformatory. It was introduced on January 18, 1909, and as finally enacted it appears as Article 2, Chapter 31, Session Laws 1909. Section 1, as later revised by the 1910 Code, now appears as Section 281, Title 57 Oklahoma Statutes 1941. As originally enacted this section read:

“There is hereby created, located and established within one mile of the corporate limits of the town of Granite, Greer county, the Oklahoma State Reformatory. All persons between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five years heretofore convicted of any crime whose punishment is by imprisonment, shall be confined in the Oklahoma State Reformatory; Provided, the persons between said ages heretofore convicted of crime shall be confined at either the Oklahoma State Reformatory or the State Penitentiary in the discretion of the State Board of Prison Control; and that persons between said ages hereafter convicted of crime, whose sentence to imprisonment shall be not to exceed five years, shall be confined at either the Oklahoma State Reformatory or the *62 State Penitentiary, at the discretion of the court sentencing said persons to imprisonment. The Oklahoma State Reformatory shall be under the general charge and management of the said Board of Control.”

It is apparent at once that the section begins with two exactly conflicting provisions. One providing that all persons between the ages of 16 and 25 years theretofore convicted should be confined in the reformatory, while the immediately following proviso authorized said prisoners to be confined at either the reformatory or the penitentiary in the discretion of the board of control. The first provision was stricken by the revisers in 1910 and the matter left in the discretion of the board. With reference to all persons between said ages thereafter convicted and whose sentence be not to exceed five years, the discretion was left with the court sentencing such persons to imprisonment. Such continues to be the language as it appears in the 1941 Code. It will thus be noted that the confinement of the persons described in said section was left to the discretion of either the board of control or the court pronouncing the sentence.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pacific Eastern Corp. v. Gulf Life Holding Co.
902 S.W.2d 946 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1995)
Hendrick v. Walters
1993 OK 162 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1993)
Opinion No.
Texas Attorney General Reports, 1989
Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Texas Attorney General Reports, 1989
Opinion No. 72-248 (1972) Ag
Oklahoma Attorney General Reports, 1972
Opinion No. 72-242 (1972) Ag
Oklahoma Attorney General Reports, 1972
Gettings v. Page
1968 OK CR 108 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1968)
Opinion No. 68-147 (1968) Ag
Oklahoma Attorney General Reports, 1968
In Re the Habeas Corpus of Wells
1959 OK CR 11 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1959)
Ex Parte Higgs
1953 OK CR 160 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Frazier v. State
1953 OK CR 1 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Atchley v. Board of Barber Examiners of State
1953 OK 146 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1953)
Ex Parte Barnett
1953 OK CR 2 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Anderson Hotels of Oklahoma, Inc. v. Baker
190 F.2d 741 (Tenth Circuit, 1951)
In Re Application of Zienowicz
79 A.2d 912 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1951)
Tilghman v. Burns
1950 OK CR 70 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1950)
Harrigill v. State
1950 OK CR 12 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1950)
Phinney v. State
1949 OK CR 92 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1949)
Ex Parte Burns
1949 OK CR 11 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1949)
Ex Parte Pierce
1948 OK CR 125 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1948 OK CR 108, 199 P.2d 228, 88 Okla. Crim. 56, 1948 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-olden-oklacrimapp-1948.