State Ex Rel. Johnson v. District Court of the Eighteenth Judicial District

MR. JUSTICE JOHN C. HARRISON

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

This proceeding was an original application for a writ of certiorari by the State, on the relation of William H. Johnson, County Auditor of Gallatin County, against the District Court of the Eighteenth Judicial District, in and for the County of Gallatin, ordering payment of attorney’s fees in a misdemeanor case.

This is a matter of first impression in this court, though Montana has, since territorial days, paid for the defense of indigents accused in felony cases. The facts of this case are simple and undisputed.

William Pillow was…