| Show IS 18 IT imprisonment FOE eor LIFE ANOTHER contempt case affords food for public conversation dr clinton has been confined in the penitentiary for nn an indefinite period because ho ha failed to pay into court a sum of money which the court coert had decided he should hand over by a fixed bateas alimony in a I 1 divorce cao velch which no he had allowed to go by default the court held him as in contempt the territorial rit orial law provides that when the contempt consists in the ona omle omie halon nalon alon aion to perform an act not which is yet in the power of the person to perform he may be imprisoned until he hag has performed it or until released by the court dr clinton pleaded his hla inability to pay the money demanded of him the question Us is then can a judge assume that a deafen dant daut la 13 able to produce a given amount of money and keep beep him locked up in tho penitentiary till he pays it there are acts that may be legally required by the court of a witness or a defendant which ho he Is clearly able to perform and refuses to do in a spirit of contumacy defiance and contempt of the courts authority it ia 13 proper that such a person should be punished or restrained of liberty until he is 18 willing to do that which he Is ia able and ought of right to perform but it Is very questionable whether this may be carried as far as aa to compel a man to hand band over money which he swears he is not abie able to pay such a coarse courve might keep him in crl cri prison son nil nii his hla life and endanger his health henith a th so that his term of existence might be out cut short thus in effect making failure to meet a debt obligation a capital of nence lenee it looks to us that th this s Is carrying the law of contempt a little too far and that habeas corpus will have more work to do shortly |
