Wallace v. State

269 S.W.2d 780, 196 Tenn. 577, 32 Beeler 577, 1954 Tenn. LEXIS 423
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedMay 21, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 269 S.W.2d 780 (Wallace v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wallace v. State, 269 S.W.2d 780, 196 Tenn. 577, 32 Beeler 577, 1954 Tenn. LEXIS 423 (Tenn. 1954).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Tomlinson

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The questions here are whether tbe Court erred in ordering (1) .a forfeiture of tbe $15,000' cash bond deposited in accordance with Code Section 11678 for tbe appearance of Howard Thomas Wallace in tbe hereinafter mentioned criminal cases, and (2) forfeiture of a bail bond to secure Wallace’s presence at tbe hearing of a fugitive from justice case, Jaelc Scott being tbe surety on this bail bond, and (3) whether the petition for tbe relief authorized by Code Section 11695 to lessen or remit tbe amount of tbe forfeiture, if any, has merit.

Three indictments, each charging robbery, and containing a habitual criminal count, were returned against Wallace by tbe Davidson County grand jury. By order of tbe Trial Court be was allowed to deposit with tbe clerk $15,000 in cash in lieu of a bail bond, Code 11678 et seq., to secure bis appearance “for trial in tbe above numbered eases and abide such orders of tbe Court as are made in these cases until final disposition thereof”. This order then declared a lien on this money for tbe fees of bis two attorneys in tbe cases, if not forfeited to tbe [580]*580State for failure of Wallace to appear according to his undertaking.

Upon a trial in one of these cases, number 19760, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of robbery, and not guilty on the habitual criminal count. Wallace’s motion for a new trial on the robbery count was set for hearing, as finally fixed, on January 17, 1953. In the meantime, Wallace remained at liberty on the aforesaid cash bond.

The January 14 minutes of the Court recite that the District Attorney General stated to the Court that Wallace is in custody at Jackson, Mississippi for some offense alleged to have been committed there. At that time the hearing of the motion for a new trial had been set for January 16. This order then recited that it is necessary for Wallace to attend that hearing; hence, “it is ordered by the Court that a capias issue forthwith for the arrest of the defendant Howard Thomas Wallace in order that he may be returned into custody and to the end that he be present in this Court on Friday, January 16, 1953 at 9:30 A.M.”

The language of this order reflects it to be a fact that the Trial Court intended for the officer to whom this capias is delivered to go to Jackson, Mississippi, and .bring Wallace back. The Attorney General for Davidson County had in the meantime phoned and wired the sheriff at Jackson, Mississippi to hold Wallace for the Tennessee authorities in the event of bail on the Mississippi charge.

At the time of the entry of this order, and the immediate issuance of the capias thereby ordered, and the instructions of the Attorney General to the Mississippi officers to hold Wallace, there had been no showing* that Wallace would not be present in the Davidson County [581]*581Court on January 16 for the hearing of his motion, unless the Trial Court was permitted to infer that he would fail to make bail bond in the Mississippi case and be discharged in time to return to Tennessee for the January 16 hearing. But there is no basis upon which the drawing of such an inference was judicially permissible.

Some time during the day of January 16, Wallace succeeded in making appearance bond in the Mississippi cases, and was thereupon delivered at Jackson, Mississippi, by the Mississippi authorities to the Tennessee deputy sheriff, to whom had been delivered the capias which had been ordered and issued on January 14. This deputy sheriff accepted the delivery, handcuffed Wallace, and started back to Tennessee. At some place in Alabama Wallace escaped. Some days later he was caught in an act of robbery in Virginia, and is serving in its penitentiary a sentence of several years for that offense.

The undisputed evidence is that the two attorneys representing Wallace in the Tennessee cases requested the Attorney General to make application to the Court for the issuance of the January 14, capias. One of these two attorneys accompanied the Davidson County deputy sheriff to Jackson, Mississippi, and was with this deputy on the return trip at the time Wallace effected his escape in Alabama.

By technically proper proceedings a judgment final forfeiting this money to the State of Tennessee was entered over objections and exceptions made in behalf of Wallace and his two attorneys. Upon this, their appeal, it is insisted that it was error to enter judgment final forfeiting this money to the State; that, on the other hand, the conditional forfeiture first entered should be set aside, “and the scire facias discharged”.

[582]*582In support of the insistence just stated, the brief of plaintiffs in error says it to be well settled law “that where a defendant is re-arrested for an offense in which he has already made a bond, his bond is discharged and no liability can subsequently accrue thereon in the event the defendant succeeds in making good an escape”. As authority for this statement there is cited Russell v. State, 134 Tenn. 640, 643, 185 S.W. 693, 694, wherein it is held that:

“A second arrest on the same offense on a valid capias has the legal effect to take the prisoner out of the custody of his sureties, ‘jailers of his own choosing’; and, the defendant being then in the custody of the law, the sureties are released.” (Italics ours.)

The question which we are immediately required to answer, therefore, is whether the capias in the instant case was a valid capias. This capias was issued while Wallace was at liberty on his recognizance secured by a $15,000 cash deposit.

After a defendant is at liberty on bond he may be arrested .again for the same charge upon order of the Trial Court for any one or more of the reasons set out in Code Section 11711. The order of the Court directing the issuance of this capias for the re-arrest of Wallace was not based on any of the reasons set out in Code Section 11711. It was, therefore, an unauthorized, hence invalid, capias.

In the Russell case, supra, an unauthorized capias was issued for the re-arrest of a party out on bail. While in the custody of the sheriff by reason of this unauthorized capias the defendant escaped. The sureties insisted that by reason of this re-arrest they were released. In re[583]*583jecting this insistence the Court held, 134 Tenn. at page 643, 185 S.W. at page 694, that “the issuance of a capias without authority, or as ‘a work of supererogation,’ and a subsequent arrest of the defendant thereunder, followed by his escape, does not operate to release or exonerate his sureties.”

Since the capias in the instant case was unauthorized, the holding in the B-ussell case rules the case at bar, and makes it necessary to hold that the re-arrest of Wallace on the invalid capias did not operate to discharge his recognizance and release the $15,000 cash deposit.

It is insisted, however, that the State is not entitled to this forfeiture because the District Attorney General has not requested the State of Virginia to surrender Wallace to the State of Tennessee for proceedings by Tennessee in cases in which this cash was deposited. But it is held in Devine v. State, 37 Tenn. 623 (Reprint 622), that such subsequent arrest ,and imprisonment in a foreign State does not excuse the carrying out of the obligations of the bail bond or recognizance. This is the holding generally. State v. Douglas, 91 W. Va. 338, 112 S. E. 584, 26 A. L. R.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
269 S.W.2d 780, 196 Tenn. 577, 32 Beeler 577, 1954 Tenn. LEXIS 423, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wallace-v-state-tenn-1954.