Case ID: okla-crim_11/html/0381-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "ARMSTRONG, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Ex parte WALTER FLOWERS. Ex parte JAMES HOBBS.
    Nos. A-2348, A-2349.
    Opinion Filed March 15, 1915.
    (146 Pac. 914.)
    COURTS — Opinion—Habeas Corpus Proceedings. When a petition for the writ of habeas corpus is filed in this court and a majority of the members of the court agree that the petitioners are entitled to be released from custody, but are unable to agree upon a determination of the legal questions raised, such petitioners will be discharged by a memorandum order and especially when no good purpose can be served by an extensive discussion of the questions raised.
    (Syllabus by the Court.)
    Applications for writs of habeas corpus by Walter Flowers and James Hobbs.
    Writs granted.
    
      McAdams & Haskell, Jean P. Day, H. D. Henry, and W. 0. Cromzvell, for petitioners.
    
      Samuel W. Hayes and C. J. Davenport, Asst. A.tty. Gen., for the State.
   ARMSTRONG, J.

The petitions of Walter Flowers and James Hobbs were filed in this court in October and November, 1914, seeking their release upon the writ of habeas corpus from the custody of the warden of the state penitentiary. The petitions are based primarily upon pardons issued by Lieutenant Governor J. J. McAlester in the absence of Governor Lee Cruce from the state. The questions at issue were ably argued and briefed by counsel for both petitioners and respondent. Many of the statutes involved have been repealed by the Legislature since the filing of the petitions, thereby eliminating numerous questions from these cases. The members of the court, after thorough and deliberate consideration, have been unable to agree upon many of the legal questions presented. There is no disagreement among a majority, however, upon the question of the right of petitioners to be discharged upon the ground that the said pardons are valid as between the state and the petitioners. The writer of this memorandum, however, does not concur in that conclusion.

The writs are granted, and the warden of the state penitentiary directed to discharge the petitioners from custody.

DOYFE, P. J., and FURMAN, J., concur in result.