Hemphill v. District Court

This is an original proceeding in which the petitioner, James Hemp-hill, seeks a writ directing the respondents to allow the warden of the Denver County jail to exercise his discretion in deducting good time from the petitioner’s sentence. We issued a rule to show cause, and ordered the release of the petitioner pending review of the issue presented. We now make the rule absolute.

The petitioner was convicted of a class three misdemeanor and sentenced to the Denver County jail for a term of six months “flat.” After five months, the petitioner had accumulated enough good time to permit his…