Ex parte Willette

63 So. 2d 52, 219 Miss. 785, 21 Adv. S. 20, 1953 Miss. LEXIS 402
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 23, 1953
DocketNo. 38905
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 63 So. 2d 52 (Ex parte Willette) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex parte Willette, 63 So. 2d 52, 219 Miss. 785, 21 Adv. S. 20, 1953 Miss. LEXIS 402 (Mich. 1953).

Opinion

Ethridge, J.

Petitioner, Charles Jay Willette, has filed in this court, under Code of 1942, Sec. 1180, a de novo petition for hail pending appeal from his conviction in December, 1952, of murder, in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Jones County. Petitioner was sentenced to life imprisonment, and has perfected an appeal which [787]*787is now pending from that conviction to this Court. With the present docket this appeal on the merits will probably not be submitted until sometime in October, 1953, about eight months from the present time.

The petition avers that Willette is a man 74 years of age, and that his continued confinement in jail in his present physical condition will seriously affect his health and his life. It states that for some two or three years petitioner has suffered with a severe case of bronchial asthma and of cardiac asthma, and that during this time his constitution has become so deteriorated that it is necessary for him to have fresh air, to take exercise in the open, and that he has been under the constant care and attention of a physician. It is charged that while confined in jail, as he now is, fresh air and exercise are impossible, and that on many nights it is impossible for him to sleep, and it is necessary for him to sit up all night in order to keep breathing; that on several occasions since his confinement in the latter part of December, 1952, it has been necessary for him to be removed from the jail to a hospital for treatment, and that under all of these circumstances his confinement will greatly impair his health and endanger his life; that his body is rapidly deteriorating, and his doctors are fearful for his life if he remains 'in jail. Attached to this petition are the affidavits of five medical doctors, the sheriff of Jones County, and of the jailer and his wife.

A similar petition for bail was presented to the Circuit Court of Jones County, which, after considering the affidavits and testimony offered by the State, denied it on February 10. The present petition to this Court is a de novo petition, not an appeal from the circuit court. It is authorized by Code of 1942, Sec. 1180:

“A person convicted of treason, murder, rape, arson, burglary or robbery shall not be entitled to be released from imprisonment pending an appeal to the Supreme Court, unless it be so ordered by the court in which conviction is had, or by Supreme Court, or by the judge who [788]*788presided at the conviction, or the judge of the district in which conviction was had, or a judge of the Supreme Court in vacation of said court; and the making of such order shall be a matter of discretion with either the court or judge to be exercised with the greatest caution, and only when the peculiar circumstances of the case render it proper. A person convicted of any felony other than those enumerated in the foregoing paragraph shall be entitled to be released from imprisonment on bail pending an appeal to the Supreme Court.”

This statute in a case of this kind was interpreted in some detail in Ex Parte Atkinson, 101 Miss. 744, 58 So. 215 (1911). It was there held that a petition for bail to the Supreme Court, filed under what is now Section 1180, was a de novo proceeding in this Court in the exercise of its revisory powers; that, accordingly, an application for bail must first be presented to the trial judge before presentation to the Supreme Court; that the Supreme Court exercises its powers on the merits of the petition presented to it, independently of the action of the trial court, and that it may act upon the same or additional evidence. To the same effect is Ex Parte Prewitt, 106 Miss. 62, 63 So. 225 (1913). Compare Marley v. State, 109 Miss. 169, 68 So. 75 (1915); Crosby v. State, 125 Miss. 433, 88 So. 3 (1921); Ex Parte Wheeler, 24 So. 261 (Miss. 1898). Petitioner meets these procedural prerequisites. ITe has previously filed a petition for bail pending appeal with the circuit court, which was denied, and he now presents in this Court a de novo petition with affidavits to support it.

A summary of the affidavits and evidence before this Court is as follows:

Dr. Risher is the doctor for the Jones County jail, and has attended Willette several times since January 5, 1953. At each time he found him in a critical condition, so much so that it was necessary to send him to the hospital for treatment. He said that Willette is suffering from cardiac asthma and bronchial asthma, and has suf[789]*789fered from these diseases for a number of years; that he needs exercise, proper diet, and plenty of fresh air, and that if he does not get these, it will greatly imperil and jeopardize his health and life; that he is an old man 74 years of age, and that his health is rapidly deteriorating and will continue to do so if confined in jail, “and will result in death.” Dr. Culpepper has had Willette as a patient for several years, treating him for severe attacks of bronchial asthma. He agrees with the conclusions of Dr. Risher. Dr. Hinman has also had petitioner as a patient for several years, treating him for bronchial and cardiac asthma. Dr. Bethea has also had petitioner as a patient for two years, treating him for the same troubles. Dr. Foster is a physician at the South Mississippi Hospital in Laurel, and for the past few weeks has had petitioner under his treatment. Their conclusions as to the danger of continued confinement to Willette’s health and life were substantially the same as those outlined above. The sheriff of Jones County, and the jailer and his wife, who live in the jail building, also made affidavits that since petitioner’s confinement in jail his general physical condition and health have deteriorated rapidly and considerably, and that in their opinions if he continues to be confined in jail, his health will continue to deteriorate rapidly.

The State, as part of its brief, attaches a sworn transcript of the testimony presented by the State to the circuit judge on the hearing upon a similar, independent petition to him. Dr. Boone had not seen or examined petitioner at all, but he testified as to the nature of bronchial asthma and of cardiac asthma, the latter being a heart disease which simulates asthma, and said that confinement of a man with that trouble in the jury room, where petitioner in confined, would not in his opinion be dangerous to a man’s health. He conceded that confinement in the jail upstairs would be detrimental under the circumstances there existing. Dr. Beech, about six weeks prior to February 10, had been [790]*790telephoned about an asthmatic attack from which petitioner was suffering, and he sent petitioner some medicine to alleviate it. He saw Willette several hours later, after the medicine had taken effect, but made no examination of him at all. At that time he was feeling comfortable. He did not think that confinement would affect his life, but conceded that it would be detrimental to his health. Dr. McRae had examined petitioner on February 10. He did not observe any indication of cardiac asthma, but did say that he had an enlargement of his heart. In his opinion petitioner had bronchial asthma. He thought that it would not be dangerous to petitioner’s life if he were confined in the jury room, but said that it would be harmful to place him in the regular jail under conditions there existing. Pie stated that Willette had a very severe case of asthma, and that such attacks occurred suddenly and more often at night.

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76 So. 2d 188 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1954)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 So. 2d 52, 219 Miss. 785, 21 Adv. S. 20, 1953 Miss. LEXIS 402, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-willette-miss-1953.