The record-union., 1898-10-02

ney General Fitzgerald. for the two
years ending September 18th, that the
work of his office increased very great
| ~, as result of legislation of 1897
Among other things the report says:
! The opinions and general CORE
spondence of the office have occupied
a great deal of my time. Many Ques-
tlons of Importance affecting the ad
| mlnlstration of every department of the
| state government, the duties of every
state office and board, and the proper
conduct of the affairs of every State
| institution, as we'll as the adminiStra-
| ton Of county affairs through the me-
| dunn of District Attorneys, are con-
stantly referred to me for determina-
ton. An idea of the scope of this work,
though not of the time and labor de-
voted to it, may be gathered from the
fact that during my incumbency of
! office letters and opinions have aggre-
gated 5,096."
| In another part of the report the
Attorney General speaks of the facili-
ties afforded by California laws for ap-
peals in criminal cases, saying: "At
the date of my last report the criminal
+,
appealed from the Superior Courts to
the Supreme Court of this State aggre-
gated III. Since then there have been
added 211, making an aggregate of 39I.
The percentage of affirmances in
| these cases has been excellent"
Coming to the question of the habeas
corpus loophole discovered in the loose
ness of Federal Codes, the report says:
In addition to the ordinary work of
the criminal department, several habeas
corpus cases arose last year in the
Federal courts. In each instance they
were instituted for the sole purpose of
delaying the execution of condemned
| murderers; and it seemed for a while
as II the machinery prescribed by the
Federal statutes could be successfully
used by all persons under sentence of
death to Indefinitely stay the execution
of their sentences. However, by act
ing promptly and vigorously, / sue
ceeded in getting each of the cases
five in number-advanced upon the cal
ender of the Supreme Court of the
United States, and in having them sum-
marily disposed of as soon as they were
reached. 1 also succeeded in obtain
ing from the Federal courts a construc-
ton of the Federal statutes relative to
the laws of habeas corpus which ma
terially curtailed the dilatory uses to
which those statutes have heretofore
been put by the criminal classes. All
of this has had a very salutary effect.
Each of the murderers on whose behalf
these proceedings were taken, with the
exception of one who has been repriev
ed by you, was executed shortly after
their cases were disposed of, and no
further attempts have been made on
behalf of that class of criminals 10
invoke the aid of the Federal courts"
There were 296 civil cases on the
dockets of various State and Federal
courts during the two years embraced
in the report, and there are 112 cases
on what is termed the leave to sue"
docket making a total of 40S civil
cases pending.
1t is shown that one of the most an
noying matters connected with the
office has been collecting from counties
and individuals the various claims due
to State institutions for the mainte-
nance of defective and dependent
classes.
In many instances" runs the report,
''the managers of the institutions have
permitted the claims to become stale;
in others, they have failed to take the
steps necessary to lay the legal founda-
ton for recovery upon such claims, in
still others the original commitments
are faulty"
1t is shown that counties are bitter
contestants in all these cases, and that
substantial sums have been recovered
from individuals
STATE TREASURER'S REPORT.
The report Of the State Treasurer
shows S4,06S, Hail in the treasury on
June Both, as against So, Ill ,0O1 21 on
July l, 1896. The receipts during the
forty-ninth fiscal year were S7,193,-
$3.50; payments for the same period,
SS,231, I42. 20, being S437, 7S4 60 in ex-
cess of receipts. The payments for the
forty eighth fiscal year We're S604,-
1870 in excess of receipts. On June
Both there were outstanding and unpaid
warrants to the amount of S151, ,6S677
On the same date the total funded in
debtedness of the State was S2,2S1.-
800