Williams v. Steele, Warden

The petition for rehearing implies that our opinion holds that there is no judicial remedy open to a person who has been legally convicted and committed for the commission of a crime and who is thereafter subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of our Constitution. We do not consider our opinion susceptible to that construction, but in order that there be no question about it, we deem it desirable to s'ay so in so many words.

The question involved is whether the writ of habeas corpus may be used for that purpose. We hold that it may not. As pointed out in the recent case of…