Jamison v. Wimbish

SPEER, District Judge.

This is a petition for the great writ of right — the writ of habeas corpus. It involves the legality of a sentence by a police magistrate, for a petty municipal offense, to a term at hard labor on one of those local chain gangs — perhaps the most melancholy and distressing spectacle which afflicts the patriot and humanitarian in many localities of our country. It involves the inquiry, is such deplorable and degrading punishment, adjudged by such a court for minor municipal offenses, tolerable under the American system? It is believed that in no case previously decided by…