Ray v. McCoy

NEELY, Justice:

Two West Virginians, sentenced under the law of the State of West Virginia but currently incarcerated across the continent in the State of California, petitioned this Court for a writ of habeas corpus to compel the Commissioner of the West Virginia Department of Corrections to return them to custody in West Virginia. As imprisonment of state convicts beyond the borders of West Virginia is in controvention of W.Va. Const, art. Ill, § 5, (the “transportation clause”) we, accordingly, grant the writ.

I

This case is an outgrowth of the closure of the women’s prison at Pence Springs,…