In re a Writ of Habeas Corpus for Sharp

96 P. 563, 15 Idaho 120, 1908 Ida. LEXIS 89
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJune 20, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by71 cases

This text of 96 P. 563 (In re a Writ of Habeas Corpus for Sharp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re a Writ of Habeas Corpus for Sharp, 96 P. 563, 15 Idaho 120, 1908 Ida. LEXIS 89 (Idaho 1908).

Opinion

AILSHIE, C. J.

This is an application by the father of Hazel Sharp for a writ of habeas corpus to secure her dis[125]*125charge from the Industrial Training School. Hazel Sharp is a girl of the age of fourteen years, and is now detained at the Idaho Industrial Training School at St. Anthony. It appears that she was committed by the probate judge of Blaine county on February 4, 1908, under the provisions of the act of March 2, 1905, entitled, “An act to provide for the care of delinquent children” (Sess. Laws 1905, p. 106). No question is made as to the regularity of the proceedings and commitment. The application is based solely upon constitutional grounds, which are set out in the petition as follows:

“ (1) It is contrary to the provisions of Article 1, Section 7, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho.
“(2) It is contrary to Article 1, Section 13, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho.
“(3) It is contrary to Article 1, Section 18, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho.
“(4) It is contrary to Article 3, Section 16, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho.
“(5) It is contrary to Article 3, Section 17, of the Constitution of Idaho.
“(6) It is contrary to Article 5, Section 1, of the Constitution of Idaho.
“(7) It is contrary to Article 5, Section 13, of the Constitution of Idaho.
“ (8) It is contrary to Article 5, Section 21, of the Con-, stitution of Idaho.
“(9) It is contrary to Article 1, Section 6, of the Constitution of Idaho.
“(10) The said act is criminal in its nature, but denies to a person charged the right of a trial by jury; the right to a speedy and public trial; the right to process, or to appear and defend by person or counsel, and undertakes to deprive a citizen of the right of seeking protection in the Constitutional Courts of this state, and provides for no bail.
“(11) The said act embraces more subjects than are included in its title.
“ (12) It is not plainly worded but is ambiguous and uncertain.
[126]*126“(13) The act fails to provide any system of appeal, and undertakes to deny to persons charged any efficient or adequate appeal.
“(14) The act grants to probate judge absolute and sole jurisdiction, and jurisdiction not warranted by the constitution.
“ (15) It is unconstitutional and void for the further reason that it provides for the taking of children from their parents, even though such parents may be able, competent and worthy of their care and education.”

These questions have been reduced to the following propositions under which they have been argued by petitioner:

“I. Upon the grounds that the act is violative of the constitutional guaranties applicable to criminal procedure.
“2. That it improperly confers jurisdiction upon probate courts.
“3. Lack of or limiting right of appeal.”

The first contention made by petitioner’s counsel is that the act of March 2, 1905, entitled, “An act to provide for the care of delinquent children” (Sess. Laws 1905, p. 106), is in conflict with and in violation of secs. 6, 7, 13 and 18 of article 1 of the constitution, for the reason that it denies the right of trial by jury, speedy and public hearing, process for attendance of witnesses, the right to appear and defend in person and by counsel, and the right of bail, and that the proceeding is without due process of law.

We shall not go into a discussion of this question, or into any extended consideration of the distinction between this act and its purposes and provisions and that of the general spirit of the criminal law. These questions have all been so extensively, exhaustively' and lucidly considered and discussed by so many courts within recent years that we shall content ourselves with a citation of some of the authorities. We may premise our citation of authorities, however, by a general statement that this statute is clearly not a criminal or penal statute in its nature. Its purpose is rather to prevent minors under the age of sixteen from prosecution and conviction on charges of misdemeanors, and in that respect to relieve them [127]*127from the odium of criminal prosecutions and punishments. Its object is to confer a benefit both upon the child and the community in the way of surrounding the child with better and more elevating influences and of educating and training him in the direction of good citizenship, and thereby saving him to society and adding a good and useful citizen to the community. This, too, is done for the minor at a time when he is not entitled, either by natural law or the laws of the land, to his absolute freedom, — but rather at a time when he is subject to the restraint and custody of either a natural guardian or a legally constituted and appointed guardian to whom he owes obedience and subjection. Under this law the state, for the time being, assumes to discharge the parental duty and to direct his custody and assume his restraint.

As late as 1905, the supreme court of Pennsylvania in Commonwealth v. Fisher, 213 Pa. 48, 62 Atl. 198, had under consideration these same constitutional objections to a legislative act providing for the care and custody of delinquent children, and in the course of its opinion, the court said:

“In pressing the objection that the appellant was not taken into custody by due process of law, the assumption, running through the entire argument of the appellant, is contended that the proceedings of the act of 1903 are of a criminal nature for the punishment of offenders for crimes committed, and that the appellant was so punished. But he was not, and he could not have been, without due process of law; for the constitutional guaranty is that no one charged with a criminal offense shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. To save a child from becoming a criminal, or from continuing in a career of crime, to end in mature years in public punishment and disgrace, the legislature surely may provide for the salvation of such a child, if its parents or guardian be unable or unwilling to do so, by bringing it into one of the courts of the state without any process at all, for the purpose of subjecting it to the state’s guardianship and protection. The natural parent needs no process to temporarily deprive his child of its liberty by confining it in his own home, to save it and to shield it from the [128]*128consequences of persistence in a career of waywardness; nor is the state, when compelled, as parens patriae, to take the place of the father for the same purpose, required to adopt any process as a means of placing its hands upon the child to lead it into one of its courts. When the child gets there, and the court, with the power to save it, determines on its salvation, and not its punishment, it is immaterial how it got there. The act simply provides how children who ought to be saved may reach the court to be saved.

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Bluebook (online)
96 P. 563, 15 Idaho 120, 1908 Ida. LEXIS 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-a-writ-of-habeas-corpus-for-sharp-idaho-1908.