In Re Writ of Habeas Corpus of Dare

370 P.2d 846
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 5, 1962
DocketA-13142
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 370 P.2d 846 (In Re Writ of Habeas Corpus of Dare) 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
In Re Writ of Habeas Corpus of Dare, 370 P.2d 846 (Okla. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

BUSSEY, Judge.

This, is an original proceeding by Richard Henry Dare to secure his release from confinement in the State Penitentiary at McAlester, Oklahoma, where he is presently confined under sentence of death by virtue of a judgment and sentence rendered against him in case number 26,547 on the 9th day of June, 1961, in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma.

We observe that a timely appeal has been perfected to this court from the judgment and sentence rendered against him in case number 26,547, in the District Court of Oklahoma County on the 9th day of June, 1961.

The general rule is that the Court of Criminal Appeals will deny habeas corpus when an appeal is pending from the same judgment and sentence. See Ex parte Anderson, 73 Okl.Cr. 97, 118 P.2d 404.

However, this rule cannot apply when the habeas corpus proceeding challenges the jurisdiction of the trial court.

The question thus posed is whether the trial court had the necessary requisites of jurisdiction. These are, (1) jurisdiction over the subject matter — the subject matter in this connection was the criminal offense of murder, (2) jurisdiction over the per *851 son, and (3) the authority under law to pronounce the particular judgment and sentence herein rendered.

Article VII of the Oklahoma Constitution vests in the District Courts of Oklahoma the trial jurisdiction in felony cases.

Article II, Section 20, of the Oklahoma Constitution vests in the courts of the county wherein crimes are committed, the territorial jurisdiction over the subject matter.

Article II, Section 17, provides that felonies may be prosecuted by presentment or indictment or by information.

In Pierro v. Turner, 95 Okl.Cr. 425, 247 P.2d 291, this Court said:

“The Constitution of Oklahoma, Art. II, § 17, authorizes prosecutions for felonies by information after examination and commitment by a magistrate, or by indictment by a grand jury. These are concurrent remedies and the prosecution may be by either mode.”

Hence, the trial court may acquire jurisdiction over the subject matter, person, and the authority to pronounce judgment and sentence when an information is filed in the district court setting forth all of the necessary allegations charging the commission of a felony and when the defendant enters a plea thereto and proceeds to trial. Thereafter, the trial court may lose jurisdiction if in the course of its proceeding, the fundamental and inalienable rights of the accused are denied without the accused having waived them. See Application of Fowler for Writ of Habeas Corpus, Okl.Cr., 356 P.2d 770.

In the Fowler case the court did not lose jurisdiction over the subject matter, nor did it lose the authority to pronounce the sentence imposed.

It did, however, lose the jurisdiction over the person, after having acquired it, by admitting into evidence a confession obtained in the denial of the constitutional rights of the accused to due process of law.

An examination of the case made filed in the cause now pending on appeal, discloses that the petitioner was charged in the District Court of Oklahoma County and that said information states all the necessary allegations sufficient to charge the petitioner with the crime of murder.

Murder is defined under the provisions of Title 21 Okl.St.Ann. § 701 as a felony, the punishment for which may be either life imprisonment or death. Thus, it appears that the District Court of Oklahoma County had jurisdiction over the subject matter and the authority under law to pronounce the particular sentence herein imposed.

In considering the contentions raised by the petitioner, we will therefore determine whether or not the trial court acquired jurisdiction over the person of Richard Henry Dare, and if such jurisdiction was ever acquired, whether it was lost as a result of a denial of the defendant’s constitutional rights to due process of law.

Since the petitioner makes several assignments of error which involve various stages in the proceedings from his arrest to his trial, we will, at the outset, make a brief statement of the facts as revealed by a careful examination of the preliminary transcript attached to petitioner’s application for writ of habeas corpus, the case made in the cause pending on appeal, and statements of the petitioner contained in his “Brief Supporting Petition of Petitioner.”

Such examination discloses that on the afternoon of August 5, 1960, the petitioner went to the home of Ted Albert at 1737 Southwest 16th Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and while there took the lives of his, the petitioner’s estranged wife, Patricia Ann Dare, his mother-in-law, Virgie Albert, his wife’s nephew, William McCormick, and the aforesaid Ted Albert.

Thereafter, on Sunday evening, August 7, 1960, at about 10 p. m., at the home of his sister, Mrs. Orbie Carter, located in McClain County, Oklahoma, the petitioner surrendered to Sheriff Joe Huddleston, of McClain County, who took the petitioner to McClain County Courthouse, gave him a coca cola and a sandwich and thereafter *852 surrendered him to Don Cunningham of the Oklahoma Crime Bureau. Mr. Cunningham and Captain Jack Mullenix of the Oklahoma City Police Department then transported the petitioner to the Oklahoma City Police Department, a distance of approximately forty miles. In the record it appears that Agent Cunningham advised the petitioner of his constitutional rights and that, thereafter the petitioner confessed to the slayings heretofore referred to.

The confessions were recorded on five separate recordings. One confession detailing the four slayings and the other four containing the separate details of each slaying. The record further discloses that the questioning of the petitioner began about 11:30 p. m. on August 7, 1960, and terminated approximately two and one-half hours later.

Subsequently, on the 8th day of August, 1960, the County Attorney of Oklahoma County, James W. Bill Berry filed four preliminary informations, each charging the defendant Dare with murder, in the Justice of the Peace Court of the Honorable Marvin Cavnar for the Oklahoma City District, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, who issued a warrant for the arrest of Dare, who was served and then committed to the Oklahoma County Jail without bail and ordered held for the Grand Jury.

It further appears that on September 13, 1960, County Attorney Berry dismissed the charges which were filed in the Justice of the Peace Court of the Honorable Marvin Cavnar, and thereafter filed four separate preliminary informations, each charging the defendant with murder, and that warrants for the arrest of the petitioner were issued and served and he was again committed to the Oklahoma County Jail without bail and ordered held for the Grand Jury. Preliminary hearings were set for September 27, 1960, and Attorney Ralph Samara was appointed by the court to represent the petitioner at these preliminary hearings.

Thereafter, the petitioner was bound over to stand trial for murder in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma.

It appears from the record that Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
370 P.2d 846, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-writ-of-habeas-corpus-of-dare-oklacrimapp-1962.