Ex parte Claunch
Supreme Court of Missouri
Habeas Corpus. On the 29th day December, 1879, the petitioner, Bur-rill Claunch, killed William T. Brownlee, by shooting him with a shot-gun. On the next day he surrendered himself to T. B. Murray, a justice of the peace, before whom an affidavit was made charging him with the homicide. Thereupon Murray issued a warrant to constable Ramsey, under which Ramsey took Claunch into custody.
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Habeas Corpus. On the 29th day December, 1879, the petitioner, Bur-rill Claunch, killed William T. Brownlee, by shooting him with a shot-gun. On the next day he surrendered himself to T. B. Murray, a justice of the peace, before whom an affidavit was made charging him with the homicide. Thereupon Murray issued a warrant to constable Ramsey, under which Ramsey took Claunch into custody. Before any preliminary examination took place, the coroner of the county held an inquest on the body of Brownlee, and immediately filed an affidavit before O. D. Hawkins, a justice of the peace, charging…
1Opinion of the CourtSherwood, C. J.
*235a. justice’s court: ¶-ieTprosecuting attorney. *234So far as concerns the question of the jurisdiction of the committing magistrate, Hawkins, *235we experience no difficulty, regarding it as perfectly competent for the prosecuting attorney, as the representative of the State, to dismiss the prosecution commenced before Murray, as the affidavit filed before him was, in the opinion of the prosecuting attorney, defective in failing to charge murder in the first degree.
• Besides, it was the duty of the coroner, upon inquisition found before him of the death of Brownlee, speedily to inform a justice of…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- In re AlexanderSupreme Court of Missouri · 1875
3Cited by3 opinions
- State Ex Rel. Griffin v. SmithSupreme Court of Missouri · 1953
- Ex Parte Richard VerdenSupreme Court of Missouri · 1922
- Ex Parte BurgessSupreme Court of Missouri · 1925