Ex Parte Sproull

The trial court found relator in contempt for failure to pay child support and sentenced him to over 22 years’ confinement— 8,160 days, to be exact, 60 days for each of 136 missed payments to be served consecutively. The trial court suspended commitment and placed relator on 30 days’ probation conditioned on his payment of over $40,000 within 23 days. Relator, who was unemployed and living with his mother, failed to meet this condition and was ordered confined until he had served his entire sentence. A divided court of appeals denied relator’s application for writ of ha-beas corpus without…