State v. Thurman
Alabama Court of Appeals
Appeal from Circuit Court, Elmore County ; B. K. McMorris, Judge. Habeas corpus proceedings by Tom Thurman to secure his discharge from the penitentiary where he was serving sentence of life imprisonment, after cpnviction of murder in the first degree. Prom an order granting the writ, and discharging the petitioner, the State appeals.
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Appeal from Circuit Court, Elmore County ; B. K. McMorris, Judge. Habeas corpus proceedings by Tom Thurman to secure his discharge from the penitentiary where he was serving sentence of life imprisonment, after cpnviction of murder in the first degree. Prom an order granting the writ, and discharging the petitioner, the State appeals. After admitting that the trial and conviction was void, and making an analysis of the various authorities cited by petitioner, counsel 'insist that a discontinuance has not resulted; that the original indictment is valid, and stands against the defendant on…
1Opinion
On Rehearing.
[1] Under the common law the writ of habeas corpus was used by our ancestors as the great “key of liberty to uhlock the prison doors of tyranny”; it was written in the blood of freemen and came to us as a part of our inheritance from those who won it and preserved it, through the centuries, even antedating Magna Charta. It is a part of our civilization preserved to the citizens of this state under section 17 of the Constitution, that it xpay be used by those who are illegally restrained of their liberty. It cannot be bound down by the thongs of technical pleading, or its swift…
2Cases cited11 opinions
- Ex parte HardySupreme Court of Alabama · 1880
- Ex parte BizzellSupreme Court of Alabama · 1895
- Garlick v. DunnSupreme Court of Alabama · 1868
- White v. StateSupreme Court of Alabama · 1901
- Travelers' Ins. Co. v. LazenbyAlabama Court of Appeals · 1918
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