Court Opinion

ID: 9664939
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:34:45.364706+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:11.278414
License: Public Domain

GALBREATH, Judge
(dissenting).
I must respectfully dissent from the concurring opinions of my brethren.
The petition confronting us is so poorly drawn as to be almost unintelligible. It is in the inmate’s cursive and *452is far below the standards of the average petition prepared by or for a prisoner behind the walls. Counsel was appointed to assist petitioner more than two months before disposition of the State’s motion to dismiss. It would seem the first order of business for appointed counsel would have been to cure by amendment the obvious literary and legal deficiencies of the petition, if for no better reason than to have made it easier to read.
In spite of the lack of clarity occasioned by the ineptness of the drafter of the petition, it appears to this writer that his actual complaint is that the sentence under attack has expired. True, he does not say so in exact terms but it seems to me he contends, in effect, that if he is allowed a year’s credit for jail time plus good and honor time and, of course, credit for time served that the three year sentence imposed has been completely served. That he is probably wrong in his allegation does not change the fact that he has mounted a justiciable issue going to the legality of his restraint.
If the prisoner contends, as I believe he does, that his term of lawful confinement has expired, he has a right to present such proof as he has to sustain his position since the record before us does not suggest the expiration date.
No question involving the petitioner’s right to parole is presented and I find the observations contained in the concurring opinion inapplicable to this case. While agreeing with all of the principles of law expressed reiterating the recognized prerogative of the executive branch of our government to grant and supervise paroles, it is clear that if the Department of Corrections refuses *453to release a prisoner upon the expiration of his sentence, relief is available through habeas corpus.
I would have reversed and remanded to allow proof to determine if the petitioner’s sentence has expired.