State ex rel. Davis v. Newman

24 Fla. 33
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 15, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 24 Fla. 33 (State ex rel. Davis v. Newman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Davis v. Newman, 24 Fla. 33 (Fla. 1888).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Raney

delivered the opinion of the court:

The act of January 4th, 1848, (Chapter 138, Laws of Florida,) provided that any party convicted of crime or misdemeanor, not capital, should be entitled to a writ of error upon complying with the following terms: “He shall obtain from the clerk a duly certified copy of the record in the case and.present the same, with an assignment of the errors relied on, to the Supreme Court or to one of its Justices; and if such court or Justice, upon an inspection of the record, shall be of the opinion that there is just cause tor allowing a writ of error, he shall so endorse on such record; and thereupon a writ of error shall issue from either the Circuit or Supreme Court.” Its provisions as to capital cases were different.

In 1861 the above act was, however, so amended by [37]*37chapter 1101 as to provide, 1st, that writs of error in capital cases should be allowed only in the manner and upon terms provided by law for such writs in eases of misdemeanor and crimes not capital; and secondly, that Circuit Judges should have the same power in allowing writs of error in such cases as Justices of the Supreme Court then had. In 1866 it was provided by chapter 1561 that the Judges of the Circuit Court should have power to issue writs of error in vacation as well as in term time. These acts of 1861 and 1866 gave the Circuit Courts and Judges the same power as the original act of 1848 gave the Supreme Court and each of its Justices, and the act of 1861 took from writs of error in capital cases the character of writs of right, and put them upon the same footing, as to their issuance, as those in eases not capital.

The act of 1848 makes express provisions as to when and under what circumstances writs of error in criminal cases, of all grades triable by Circuit Courts, shall operate .as a supersedeas to the execution of the sentence or judgment sought to be reviewed.

It maj’- (section 4) be by the plaintiff in error paying all •costs which have accrued up to the time, and by securing recognizance to be entered into with one or more sureties before the Clerk of the Circuit Court iu a sum sufficient to secure the payment of the judgment, fine and future costs as may be adjudged and affirmed in the Supreme Court and conditioned to be personally forthcoming to abide the judgment of the Supreme Court, and in case the cause is remanded to the Circuit Court to personally appear at its next term to answer and to depart not without leave. If •at the time of obtaining the supersedeas in the above manner the convict is in custody under the sentence of conviction, he still cannot be discharged frpm such custody [38]*38except by an order of the court or ot the judge or justice-allowing the writ, and such an order can be made only in cases bailable according to the course of the common law. (Section 5.)

In case the convicted person shall be utterly unable to. pay the costs of the cause in whole or in part, and shall (section 6) make oath “ before the court or the clerk thereof,” and also by credible testimony establish satisfactorily. that he has no property or other means of payment, either in his possession or under his control, and has not divested himself of his property for the purpose of receiving benefit from his oath, and is also utterly unable to enter into the-recognizance required to secure the payment of such judgment, fine and costs, thereupon, such oath being made and evidence produced, the writ of error shall be a supersedeas without such payment, if the defendant remain in custody, or, in cases not capital, upon his entering into recognizance with one or more sureties conditioned that he shall be personally forthcoming to answer and abide the final order, sentence or judgment that may be passed in the-premises by the Supreme Court, and further conditioned for his appearance before the Circuit Court as above indicated.

It is apparent that the act of 1848 has not provided that the transcript of the record, upon an inspection of which the writ may be allowed to issue, shall be furnished by the clerk without pay or shall be primarily charged against the State, nor does it impose the payment of costs upon the State. It is also clear that there is in the record nothing to show that the act of 1887, (chapter 3702,) or the act of 1859, chapter 1001 (assuming it not repealed by chapter 3702), in so far as. they, or either of them, provide for the taxation to, or payment by, the State, of costs incurred by insolvent persons in criminal trials, have been complied [39]*39with by the relator, even if it be that such statutes apply to proceedings on writs of error. The proceedings provided by the act of 1848 for giving to a writ of error the effect of a supersedeas, are all upon the assumption that the writ has already issued, or at least been allowed, in the manner indicated by the statutes. It is certain that no' writ has been allowed, in such manner, in the case before us. The Legislature has provided the manner for its allowance, and it is not our pi’ovince to alter or defeat such provision.

It is corxtended that under section 14 of the Declaratioxx» of Rights of the Constitution, the clerk cannot require payment of cost of the transcript. This is as follows: “No person shall be compelled to pay costs except after conviction on a final trial.”

If it be that the purpose of this section of the Declaration of Rights was to prohibit any officer of a court from requiring a person held under a criminal charge or on trial for the same, to pay, before he shall have been convicted on final trial, costs for any official service, and to make it the duty of such officer to perform official services for a person so held or on trial, without the right to require pay of him for the same until after his conviction on final trial, and that its purpose, in connection with section 9, of article XVI, was to make the State the debtor of the officer fox-services so performed in case such person should be “ insolvent or discharged,” it is still clear that the provision of the Declaration of Rights does not extend beyond a “ conviction on final trial,” and this being so we must determine the meaning of these words.

In civil cases at law we mean by final judgment the adjudication which finally disposes of or determines the case in the court of original jurisdiction having power to examine and determine the case upon its merits, in favor of [40]*40the one side or the other, as the result may be, and, if for the plaintiff, declares the nature and extent of his recovery and entitles him to his execution for the enforcement or satisfaction of the same, and if for the defendant, declares that the plaintiff shall take nothing by his' suit and that the defendant shall no longer be detained in court, and awards the defendant his costs against the plaintiff. Gates vs. Hayner, 22 Fla., 325. In criminal cases the entry in such a court of the sentence upon the verdict of guilty is the final judgment. 1 Bishop on Criminal Procedure, 1120, 1121; Bouvier,“Final Sentence;” Savage vs. State, 19 Fla., 561; and in this judgment the costs of prosecution (barring any effect to the contrary, of provisions as to payment by the State in case the person convicted is insolvent, and has complied with the statutes governing in such eases,) should be included and entered up against the convicted person, (section 3, p. 294, McClellan’s Digest,) and the writ of execution having the effect of both a ca. sa. and fi fa, issues in favor of the State against the defendant. (Section 8, pp. 294, 295.)

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Bluebook (online)
24 Fla. 33, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-davis-v-newman-fla-1888.