Case ID: ala_92/html/0101-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "MoCLELLAN, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Ex parte Crawlin.
    
      Petition for Discharge-on Habeas Gotpus.
    
    1. Discharge onprelimi.nqr;/ .examination, as harto further prosecution. A discharge on a preliminary examination' before a ■ magistrate, on accusation for an offense of which he has no final jurisdiction, does not bar a subsequent arrest and examination of the accused for the same offense, nor render void an order of .commitment made on such subsequent examination. »
    This was an application for'a wrih of habeas corpus filed by the petitioner, Armstead Orawlin, to Hon. W. C. Bobertson, Judge of Probate of Lee county, asking for release from imprisonment on the charge of murder. The ground of release, as set out in the petition, was, that prior to his arrest upon the warrant, under which Jie was at that time imprisoned, he had been arrested under a warrant issued by another justice of the peace, within the county; and that upon a preliminary investigation he was discharged. Upon the hearing of the evidence, which tended to prove the allegations of the petition, the probate judge denied the application,‘and it is now renewed before •this court. . ■
    A. & B. B. Barnes, for petitioner.
    Harrison & Ligón, contra,
    cited Nicholson v. State, 72 Ala. 176; JSx parte Tate,'I?) Ala. 482; Clark’s Grim.'Law, p. 431 ■§ 2321, lb. p. 431; lb. p. 15 § 68..
   MoCLELLAN, J.

Except where it is provided by statute (McCannis Case, 14 Gratt. 570) that a discharge on preliminary examination shall bar further prosecution, the discharge on preliminary hearing of a person accused of an offense of which the examining magistrate has no final jurisdiction does not bar a subsequent preliminary examination, or avoid the order of commitment thereon. — Nicholson v. State, 72 Ala. 176. There is no case in which a person accused of crime can claim exemption from prosecution on the ground of previous .proceedings against him, unless such proceedings afford a predicate for a plea of former conviction, or former acquittal, or former jeopardy; and neither of these defenses can be supported except by proof of a trial had, or (where the plea is former jeopardy) entered upon before a court having jurisdiction to finally determine the question of guilt or innocence on a sufficient complaint, information or indictment.

The petition for a writ oí habeas corpus, which proceeds on the theory that one preliminary examination, and discharge thereon, is a bar to the subsequent arrest of the alleged criminal except after indictment, is denied.