Ex parte Heffren

Heffren, being indicted and in custody for murder in the first degree, for the killing of one Johnson, sued out a writ of habeas corpus for the purpose of being let to bail. Upon the return to the writ, the issue of fact fornfed and tried was whether the proof was evident and the presumption strong that the prisoner was guilty of murder. The judge found the issue against him and remanded him to jail, and he appeals to this court.

Upon the hearing below, the prisoner was required to begin the evidence. This necessarily imposed upon him the necessity of producing the evidence upon which the…