Case Name: THE PEOPLE EX REL. JOHANA DONAHUE v. WILLIAM WALTON, AS SHERIFF OF KINGS COUNTY
Court: New York Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1901-06
Citations: 15 N.Y. Crim. 512
Docket Number: 
Parties: THE PEOPLE EX REL. JOHANA DONAHUE v. WILLIAM WALTON, AS SHERIFF OF KINGS COUNTY.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York Criminal Reports
Volume: 15
Pages: 512–513

Head Matter:
Supreme Court—Special Term—Kings County.
June, 1901.
THE PEOPLE EX REL. JOHANA DONAHUE v. WILLIAM WALTON, AS SHERIFF OF KINGS COUNTY.
(35 Misc. 320.)
Sunday—Trial on void.
A trial on Sunday of a criminal case is not permitted, and a certificate of conviction and warrant of commitment made on that day are void. Persons arrested can be discharged on Sunday by a magistrate if there be no ground for holding them, or they can be committed for a hearing if that be the proper course.
Hearing of the issue raised by a demurrer tO' a return to the. writ of habeas corpus.
Mitchell May, for relator.
Robert H. Elder, opposed.

Opinion:
Gaynor, J.
By the return it appears that the relator is detained in the county jail under a warrant of commitment made by a magistrate of the City of New York. The certificate of conviction and warrant of commitment (Code Crim. Proc., § 891-2) recite that she was brought before the said magistrate on June 2, 1901, upon complaint of being a vagrant, and that on the said day the magistrate heard the case and convicted her, and committed her to the county jail for one month at hard labor.
As the day was Sunday it is claimed that the certificate of conviction and warrant of commitment are void. This is so. At common law no judicial act could be done on Sunday, Story v. Elliot, 8 Cow. 27; Van Vechten v. Paddock, 12 Johns. 178. The same rule is substantially declared by section 6 of our Code of Civil Procedure. The reservation therein that " this section does not prevent the exercise of the jurisdiction of a magistrate, where it is necessary to preserve the peace, or, in a criminal case, to arrest, commit or discharge a person charged with an offense," does not permit of a trial on Sunday. The words " commit or discharge " have no reference to a trial. They mean simply that persons arrested can be discharged on Sunday by a magistrate if there be no ground for holding them, or that they can be committed for a hearing if that be the proper course.
The relator is discharged.