| Show I THEY HEEDNT WORK No Law to Compel City Prisoners to Labor LANEY ONuS INHERENT RIGHTS RIGHTSI I i Judge Zano Very Curtly Informs Him That He Hasnt AnY < 118 Police Judge A Curious Scene oJ Attorney C B Glenn appeared in the Third district court yesterday morning and filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus In behalf of Kid Edwards The petition recited that Edwards was unlawfully imprisoned im-prisoned and restrained of his liberty by Marshal Young and that such imprisonment imprison-ment was without warrant or warrant of commitment and was therefore illegal that the judgment under which he was imprisoned im-prisoned was illegal and of no effect wherefore where-fore ho prayed that a writ be issued commanding com-manding Marshal Young to have the body of the petitioner before the court at such time and place as might be specified The entries on thodocket of the police court said Mr Glenn show that on Thursday April 23 Edwards pleaded guilty to the charge of vagrancy and was released on his own recognizance until April 24 at 2 p m Sentence suspended On Wednes day May 13 Edwards was sentenced on the charge of April 23 to thirty days at laborWell Well remarked Judge Zane a justice of the peace has no authority to suspend sentence in that way The supreme court has so decided Let the writ be issued Mr GlennWhen shall i make it returnable return-able Judge Zane sternly Instantor Mr Glenn vanished but was on hand again promptly at 2 oclock Edwards had not been produced in court at that time so an attachment was issued This had the desired effect and in a short time Sergeant Glenn entered with the prisoner and was followed by Judge Laney Clerk Stewart Assistant City Attorney Eichnor and Marshal Young Mr Eichnor at once made a brief return to the writ and Mr Newcomb who was associated as-sociated with Mr Glenn proceeded to argue ar-gue the case His first point was that the justice was required to pass sentence upon the defendant within two days of the time when bo was convicted unless he waived that right The defendant did not waive the time and sentence was passed three weeks after conviction The next point was that no justice had the authority to sentence a man to labor as was done in this case and the justice therefore exceeded his authority The city hall magnates made a wild scramble through the law books to find an ordinance authorizing the court to impose labor in any case but failed although Mr Eichnor tried to save the point by saying that there were some ordinances which had not been published and the much sought for authority might be found there Mr Glenn stated that he had examined the or dinauces in question and they did not give the authority Judge Zano stated that if there was no such authority it was very strange that the city had been working persons on the streets for years and yet that appeared to be the case As to the other point oven the district court had no authority to suspend sentence except to a definite time and the supremo court had so held Mr EichnorWe think its a very good plan to give these tin horns twentyfour hours in which toileavo town Its the only way to get rid of them Judge Zane Yes but there is no law for it thats the trouble Judge LaneyVarious decisions of the courts hold that its a power inerent in the court to suspend sentence on certain conditions condi-tions and that if the conditions are violated vio-lated the judgment may be executed JudgeZane replied that the police mag istrate had no inherent powers and ordered or-dered the discharge of the prisoner This ruling will doubtless result in the immediate passage of an ordinance giving the police magistrate the power to impose labor The charter confers the power upon the city council but for some reason it appears that the council has never exercised exer-cised it Another effect that the ruling will have will be to put an end to suspending sentence sen-tence in order toi induce people to leave town |
