People ex rel. Jackson v. Ruthazer

196 Misc. 34, 90 N.Y.S.2d 205, 1949 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2392
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJune 20, 1949
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 196 Misc. 34 (People ex rel. Jackson v. Ruthazer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. Jackson v. Ruthazer, 196 Misc. 34, 90 N.Y.S.2d 205, 1949 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2392 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1949).

Opinion

Hammer, J.

Belator has brought this proceeding by way of a writ of habeas corpus to test the validity of his detention [35]*35upon a rendition warrant issued by the Governor of this State upon requisition of the Governor of the State of Georgia. The function of a habeas corpus proceeding is to test the legality of an arrest, detention or imprisonment. The relator does not question the legality in form or substance of the warrant or the requisition and the related papers. Therein it is shown and he admits, that in September, 1944, he was convicted of burglary, by a court of competent jurisdiction in Fulton County, Georgia, was duly sentenced to a term of twenty years in the Fulton County Penitentiary, at Atlanta, Georgia, and on May 8, 1948, he escaped and came to New York where he remained until arrested as a fugitive from Georgia.

These being the facts, it appears the crime charged, and of which relator has been convicted,, sentenced and imprisoned, is a felony under the laws of both the demanding and remanding States, that relator is a fugitive from justice and as such the individual named in the warrant and requisition. Under such circumstances the relator’s writ should be dismissed and the relator remanded to custody for delivery to the agents of the remanding State. (People ex rel. Hauptmazn v. Hanley, 153 Misc. 61, affd. 242 App. Div. 257; People ex rel. Higley v. Millspaw, 281 N. Y. 441). The relator, however, relying on Johnson v. Dye (175 F. 2d 250 [C. C. A. 3d], argued March 18, 1948, reargued March 21,1949, decided and opinion filed May 17, 1949) asserts he is entitled to have the writ sustained and himself discharged from custody. Particularly the grounds relied upon are that he has suffered from, was threatened with and if surrendered and returned to the demanding State he will again be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment and in all likelihood meet his death at the hands of the prison authorities and their subordinates in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Such charge might seem fantastic and unworthy of credence as to conditions tolerated in any part of our highly civilized country were it not for, the findings and enumeration of facts in Johnson v. Dye (supra) giving a measure of judicial authentication to certain articles in the magazines Life ” of November 1, 1943, and “ Time ” of September 13, 1943, in respect of certain conditions in Georgia prison camps, and the reference in the decision to the Beport of the President’s Committee on Civil Bights, dated 1947. The ‘ Life ’ ’ and ‘ ‘ Time ’ ’ articles and the committee report are also in evidence here. In the committee report we find the following:

[36]*36“ There are other cases in the files of the Department of Justice of officers who seem to he trigger-happy ’ where weak or poor persons are concerned. In a number of instances, Negroes have been shot, supposedly in self-defense, under circumstances indicating, at best, unsatisfactory police work in the handling of criminals, and, at worst, a callous willingness to kill.

“ Toward the end of the work of this Committee a particularly shocking instance of this occurred. On July 11, 1947, eight Negro prisoners in the State highway prison camp in Glynn County, Georgia, were killed by their white guards as they allegedly attempted to escape. The Glynn County grand jury exonerated the warden of the camp and four guards of all charges. At later hearings on the highway prison camp system held by the State Board of Corrections, conflicting evidence was presented. But one witness testified that there was no evidence that the prisoners were trying to escape. In any case, he said it was not necessary to use guns on them in the circumstances. ‘ There was no justification for the killing. I saw the Negroes where they fell. Two were killed where they crawled under the bunkhouse and two others as they ran under their cells. The only thing they were trying to escape was death. Only one tried to get over the fence.’ The warden and four guards were indicted by a federal grand jury on October 1,1947.

“ It is difficult to accept at face value police claims in cases of this type that action has been taken against prisoners in ‘ self defense ’ or to 1 prevent escape.’ Even if these protestations are accepted, the incidence of shooting in the ordinary course of law enforcement in some sections of the country is a serious reflection on these police forces. Other officers in other places seem able to enforce the law and to guard prisoners without resort to violent means.

“ The total picture — adding the connivance of some police officials in lynchings to their record of brutality against Negroes in other situations,— is, in the opinion of this Committee, a serious reflection on American justice. We know that Americans everywhere deplore this violence. We recognize further that there are many law enforcement officers in the South and the North who do not commit violent acts against Negroes or other friendless culprits. We are convinced, however, that the incidence of police brutality against Negroes is disturbingly high. ’ ’

It is noted that in the Johnson case (supra, p. 253) the court stated that “ Irrespective of whether or not articles in magazines [37]*37of national circulation are admissible as evidence, the contents of the articles referred to were employed by some of the witnesses as a basis of comparison for conditions in Georgia camps personally known to them. Because of this we may consider the contents of the articles as did the court below.” Remedial legislation of the Georgia prison system seems to have been provided by the Georgia Act of 1943 Special Session. (Georgia Code Ann. tit. 77, § 358 et seq.) This was supplemented by Act No. 617 approved February 1, 1946, which created the State Board of Corrections, and abolished whipping and all forms of corporal punishment, and barred all shackles, manacles, picks, leg irons and chains. Under the authority given by the act the State Board of Corrections on June 17, 1946, adopted and approved rules and regulations governing the penal system.

Thus the prison system of Georgia seems to have been brought abreast of the most modern penological practices of the various prison systems of the United States, both State and National.

In this proceeding at the first hearing on May 23, 1949, upon the return of the writ, the only witness was relator. He testified to certain alleged happenings wherein he stated he was brutally mistreated, as a result of which he lost the sight of his left eye and also suffered a broken arm which was improperly set and is somewhat deformed. He also related these incidents: On one occasion, being a trusty ” he was called upon to accompany the guards in pursuit of an escaping prisoner, when the party came upon another guard with a smoking shotgun from which he ejected two shells, which relator later recovered, and after several hours elapsed relator was brought to the body of the dead escapee, upon which he saw evidence of shotgun wounds, and he was required to help take the body into a woods and bury it, and was thereupon threatened if he ever mentioned the occurrence, he also would be killed and given similar treatment. He also testified that later he was questioned about this happening by prison personnel and again threatened with death.

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Bluebook (online)
196 Misc. 34, 90 N.Y.S.2d 205, 1949 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-jackson-v-ruthazer-nysupct-1949.