In Re Amundson

20 N.W.2d 340, 74 N.D. 134, 1945 N.D. LEXIS 61
North Dakota Supreme Court·Decided October 22, 1945·No. File Cr. 200·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

*135 Moréis, J.

The petitioner seeks Ms release from custody by virtue of an original writ of babeas corpus. He was taken into custody by tbe Sheriff of Burleigh County, North Dakota, pursuant to a warrant issued by the Governor of this State, upon the requisition of the Governor of the State of Minnesota. An application for a writ of habeas corpus was first made to the District Court of Burleigh County. That Court, after hearing on the petition, refused to issue the writ, whereupon application was made to this Court. See § 32-2204, Rev Code 1943.

It now appears that the petitioner was convicted of the crime of forgery in the second degree in the District court of Clay County, Minnesota, on March 6, 1940, and on the same day that Court adjudged that he serve a sentence in the State Prison at Stillwater, Minnesota, until discharged as provided by the statutes of that State. The crime for which the petitioner was thus convicted and sentenced was punishable by imprisonment in the State Prison for not more than ten years. Mason Minn Statutes 1927, § 10,326. Thus his sentence was indeterminate within the maximum provided by the Minnesota law.

On November 14, 1941, the petitioner was released from the Minnesota State Prison by the State Board of Parole under a parole agreement. This agreement provided that the petitioner should abide by all of the rules, regulations and conditions thereof, among others being the provision that he should not in any wise violate any state or federal law and further that:

“5. He shall, while on parole, remain in the legal custody and under the control of said State Board of Parole.
6. He shall be liable to be retaken and again confined within the enclosure of said State Prison for any reason that shall be satisfactory to the State Board of Parole, and at its sole discretion, until he receives written notice from said Board that his final discharge has been ordered.”

Above the signature of the petitioner attached to the parole agreement appears the following:

“I, Thos. H. Amundson, Jr., an inmate of the Minnesota State Prison, declare that I have carefully read and clearly understand the contents and conditions of the above parole. I hereby *136 accept the same and pledge myself to honestly comply with the conditions thereof and will at once proceed to the place of employment provided for me with [when] turned over to [the] State of Wisconsin, State Department of Public Welfare at Madison, Wisconsin.”

Upon his release the petitioner was taken by authorities of the State of Wisconsin to that State where he pleaded guilty to the crime of forgery committed in Wisconsin and was sentenced to prison for one year on November 15, 1941. The Wisconsin Court immediately released him on probation to the State Department of Public Welfare upon condition that he should not leave the jurisdiction of that Department. On January 19, 1942, the petitioner’s probation in Wisconsin was revoked after the authorities learned that he had committed another forgery in Wisconsin and had absconded from that jurisdiction. After leaving Wisconsin the petitioner committed further forgeries in Minnesota and North Dakota. He was given a sentence of one year in the North Dakota Penitentiary which he has now served.

On January 7, 1942, the Minnesota Parole Board revoked the petitioner’s parole after having received information that the petitioner had returned to Minnesota and passed forged checks there and upon information from the Wisconsin authorities that he had absconded from that State and had passed another forged check in Wisconsin. On the same day the Minnesota Parole Board issued its warrant directing that the petitioner be arrested and returned to the State Prison. On September 27, 1945, the Governor of Minnesota issued his requisition to the Governor of North Dakota setting forth that the petitioner “stands charged with violation of parole after having been convicted of the crime of forgery in the second degree” and asking that the petitioner be apprehended and delivered to an agent of the State of Minnesota. After the petitioner had served his sentence and had been released from the North Dakota Penitentiary, he was apprehended pursuant to the Minnesota request and an extradition hearing was had before the Governor of North Dakota, who thereupon issued his executive warrant di *137 recting that the petitioner be arrested and delivered to the Minnesota agent. Article 4, § 2, of the Constitution of the United States contains the following provision:

“A person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.”

This provision has been incorporated into the statutes of North Dakota, with a slight alteration, as § 29-3002, Bev Code 1943, and is the foundation for our extradition procedure.

The petitioner claims that he is not a fugitive from justice from the State of Minnesota. He argues that he left Minnesota involuntarily in the custody of Wisconsin authorities and that the action of the Minnesota Parole Board in releasing him to be taken to Wisconsin constituted such acquiescence in his departure from Minnesota as to preclude that State from now reclaiming him as a fugitive from justice.

The petitioner relies upon the case of Be Whittington, 34 Cal App 344, 167 P 404. In that case the petitioner was held in custody under a felony warrant for the commission of a crime in the State of Texas. A requisition was issued by the Governor of California and honored by the Governor of Texas upon a showing that the petitioner had committed murder in California. The case against him in California was subsequently dismissed. Texas thereupon sought his return to the State for trial under the original charges pending against him there. He sought a writ of habeas corpus in California to prevent his return to Texas. The writ was granted and the petitioner discharged. The court held that he was taken out of the State of Texas against his will and under a compulsory process at a time when Texas, had full control over him and power to prosecute him for the same offense for which it sought his extradition from California. Under those circumstances it was said that he was not a fugitive from justice because he did not voluntarily leave the state.

*138 The Whittington Case has been cited many times. The cases in which it is cited fall into three main categories. In a few instances it has been cited in support of dicta statements but more often it has been distinguished or criticised. The cases approving it by way of dicta are: Ex parte Hamilton, 41 Okla Crim Rep 322, 273 P 286 and Ex parte Ford, 46 Okla Crim Rep 247, 287 P 1057.

The following cases distinguish the Whittington Case from the situations under consideration: Re Marzec, 25 Cal2d 794, 154 P2d 873; Re McBride, 101 CalApp 251, 281 P 651.

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In Re Amundson, 20 N.W.2d 340, 74 N.D. 134, 1945 N.D. LEXIS 61 (N.D. 1945).

20 N.W.2d 340 (In Re Amundson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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