Ex parte Simmons
Supreme Court of Alabama
This was an application by the petitioner, Sam Simmons, for Ms discharge on habeas corpus. It appeared that the petitioner, at the spring term, 1879, of Marengo Circuit Court, was regularly tried upon an indictment for burglary, and the jury found the defendant “ guilty as charged in the indictment.”
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This was an application by the petitioner, Sam Simmons, for Ms discharge on habeas corpus. It appeared that the petitioner, at the spring term, 1879, of Marengo Circuit Court, was regularly tried upon an indictment for burglary, and the jury found the defendant “ guilty as charged in the indictment.” Upon this verdict, the court sentenced the petitioner to three years hard labor for Marengo county, and ordered the sheriff to deliver him to the hirer of convicts, one W. H. Grayson, in whose custody he was, when he applied to the probate judge for a discharge, on the ground that the sentence to…
1Opinion of the CourtBrickell, C. J.
It is not the office of a habeas corpus to obtain the correction of errors or irregularities in the judgments of courts of superior or inferior jurisdiction. An appeal, or a writ of error, is the only mode of redressing or obtaining relief from error or irregularity. — Code of 1876, §§ 4961-62. Illegality, as distinguished from mere irregularity, rendering the proceeding voidable only, not absolutely void, a usurpation, or excess of jurisdiction apparent on the face of the proceeding, will entitle a party Restrained of his liberty to a writ of habeas corpus, and to discharge from…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Miller v. MarxSupreme Court of Alabama · 1876
3Cited by23 opinions
- Sache v. WallaceSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1907
- Ex parte HardySupreme Court of Alabama · 1880
- Ex parte BizzellSupreme Court of Alabama · 1895
- Vasquez v. VasquezCalifornia Court of Appeal · 1952
- Ex parte RobersonSupreme Court of Alabama · 1898
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