Stewart v. Alvis

144 N.E.2d 907, 75 Ohio Law. Abs. 283, 1957 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 337
CourtCourt of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division
DecidedFebruary 13, 1957
DocketNo. 196604
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 144 N.E.2d 907 (Stewart v. Alvis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stewart v. Alvis, 144 N.E.2d 907, 75 Ohio Law. Abs. 283, 1957 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 337 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1957).

Opinion

OPINION

By BARTLETT, J.

This is a proceeding in habeas corpus, wherein the petitioner seeks his release from the Ohio Penitentiary to which he was sentenced by the Common Pleas Court of Mahoning County in 1949, after the jury had returned a verdict finding him guilty of uttering and publishing a forged instrument.

The Respondent’s return stated that he had custody of the said Walter Stewart since the 2nd day of June, 1949, “by virtue of a certain mittimus issued by the Court of Common Pleas of Mahoning County, Ohio, copies of which are hereto attached and made a part of this return.” Attached to said return is a certified copy of the indictment of said Walter Stewart and a certified copy of the Journal Entry showing the Court pronounced the judgment and sentence of said Stewart, “to be imprisoned and confined under §13083 GC, * * * for a term of not less than one year nor more than twenty years * * *.”

At the trial in the instant case, certified photostat copies were admitted in evidence of the indictment, journal entry of the judgment and sentence, verdict of the jury, the docket entries of the clerk and the Court’s docket with the judge’s recital in his own handwriting of the full proceedings in the trial of said Walter Stewart, including the pronouncement sentence ordering said Stewart to be confined in the penitentiary, etc.

The petitioner charged in his petition that since June 2, 1949, he had been “held as a prisoner in the custody of the respondent warden [285]*285herein by virtue of an invalid mittimus which is in the form of a certified sentence, and a certified Journal Entry, * * * certified and signed by two Deputy Clerks of the Court of Common Pleas of Mahoning County, Ohio,” * * * who had no power to so certify or sign “any order, judgment, entry or sentence of the court, except when such process had been duly signed by the Judge who rendered such process.”

Thereupon the petition charges that the court or judge never signed any sentence or journal entry so certified aforesaid.

It is conceded that the Court never signed any written sentence or journal entry in the petitioner’s case. The Court orally pronounced sentence and judgment, and the Clerk entered such judgment and sentence in the journal as certified.

Sec. 2949.12 R. C. (§13455-1 GC), provides:

“A convicted felon shall be conveyed to the place of imprisonment by the sheriff, * * * and delivered into the custody of the head of such institution, with a copy of such sentence which shall clearly describe the offense and designate the sections of the Revised Code under which the conviction was had, together with a copy of the indictment. The clerk of the court of common pleas shall furnish said copies of the sentence and indictment.”

This statute, in other words, sets out the essential requirements of the mittimus issued by the Clerk of Court, to accompany the prisoner to the institution; and the petitioner says his mittimus is invalid. The things required under this statute constitute no part of the judicial acts of the Court. State v. Peters, 43 Oh St 629.

“If it appears that a person alleged to be restrained of his liberty is in the custody of an officer under process issued by a court or magistrate, or by virtue of the judgment or order of a court of record, and that the court or magistrate had jurisdiction to issue the process, render the judgment, or make the order, the writ of habeas corpus shall not be allowed. If the jurisdiction appears after the writ is allowed, the person shall not be discharged by reason of any informality or defect in the process, judgment, or order.” (Emphasis ours.) Sec. 2725.05 R. C. (§12165 GC).

“The remedy as to errors or irregularities in the conduct of a criminal trial or in the sentence of an accused is by appeal and not by an action in habeas corpus, where the court has jurisdiction of the crime and the person. In re Whitmore, 137 Oh St 313, * * *; Ex parte Van Hagan, 25 Oh St 426; Sec. 2725.05 R. C.” Per curiam opinion, In re Kramer, 163 Oh St 510, 511.

“Counsel for defendant claim that some time after sentence and judgment were pronounced, the exact date not being stated, the assistant prosecuting attorney prepared an entry and submitted it to counsel for defendant for approval, and that, because the entry was submitted, counsel for defendant were misled into believing that the time within which to prosecute an appeal was not running. No showing is made that counsel for defendant were not present or aware that sentence and judgment had been pronounced on October 30, 1948.” (Emphasis ours.) Wiseman, J., in his opinion on behalf of the Court of Appeals of Frank[286]*286lin County (1949), in the case of State v. McGahan, 86 Oh Ap 283, 284.

This branch of the court allowed the Writ of Habeas Corpus to issue in the instant case, with the feeling that Mr. Stewart was entitled to a hearing in open court, based upon the apparent decision in the Dean case by the Court of Appeals of this District, even though we were inclined to view that decision as erroneous, in the light of the Supreme Court decision, In re Kramer, supra, and the limitations presented by §2725.05 R. C., supra, upon a proceeding in habeas corpus, as a remedy to correct errors or irregularities in the conduct of a criminal case or in the sentence of the accused.

In the meantime, Leach, J., a colleague in this court, rendered an able and well considered decision in the case of Foglio v. Alvis, Warden, etc., No. 196,808, dockets of this court. In that case. Leach, J., declined to consider the action of the Court of Appeals in the Dean case as a binding legal precedent on this court, since “the attorney for the respondent conceded that Dean was entitled to his release from the penitentiary. Because of such fact, that court had no occasion to examine carefully into the law or to render any considered decision as to the questions which could have been raised but were not.” Leach, J., found in the Foglio case, supra, that the respondent Warden did not receive any papers with reference to the prisoner, signed by the judge who pronounced sentence.

“Instead in literal compliance with §2949.12 R. C., the Clerk of Courts furnished to the Sheriff, who delivered into the custody of the respondent ‘a copy of such sentence which shall clearly describe the offense and designate the sections of the Revised Code under which the conviction was had, together with a copy of the indictment.’ The clerk certified the same to be ‘a true copy of said judgment and sentence’ and further certified that such was taken from the Journal of the Court, referring to the specific volume and page number of such Journal.”

Thereupon, Leach, J., held:

“Neither this statute nor any other statute nor any principle of law required the signature of the sentencing judge.”

The petitioner Foglio was remanded to the custody of the respondent Warden, by Leach, J„ and his petition dismissed.

Just a few days ago, the Court of Appeals of Franklin County rendered a decision in the habeas corpus case of Reiter v. Alvis as Warden, Case No. 5630, in which that court refused to recognize the Dean case in its own court as a precedent. Miller, PJ„ in the Reiter case, speaking for the court, said:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
144 N.E.2d 907, 75 Ohio Law. Abs. 283, 1957 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stewart-v-alvis-ohctcomplfrankl-1957.