Ex parte McGhee

Ex parte McGhee
1925 OK CR 198
235 P. 252
30 Okl.Cr. 90
Decided: 04/15/1925
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

(Syllabus.)

Bail Person Accused of Murder Entitled Under Evidence to Bail as Matter of Right.

Application of Elbert McGhee for habeas corpus to be admitted to bail. Bail allowed.

Brown & Phipps, for petitioner.

The Attorney General, for respondent.

DOYLE, J. In this proceeding petitioner filed in this court on March 12, 1925, his duly verified petition for writ of habeas corpus to be admitted to bail. It appears that petitioner was committed by a justice of the peace of Haskell county, after a preliminary examination and without bail, to answer to the district court of that county upon a charge of murder, alleged to have been committed on January 6, 1925, in killing one W.C. Mitchell, by striking him with an iron bar; that an application for bail was made to the judge of the district court of Haskell county and the same was denied; that the proof of his guilt of murder is not evident, nor the presumption thereof great, all of which is clearly shown by the testimony on said preliminary trial, and a copy of the same being attached and made a part of the petition.

A rule to show cause was entered and issued returnable March 12, 1925. The uncontroverted facts, as shown by the transcript of the testimony, are that petitioner visited the home of the deceased about 11 o'clock in the morning on the date of the killing, and in a quarrel over the possession of corn whisky a fight occurred. Petitioner claims that in self-defense he picked up the iron bar in

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question and struck the deceased over the head. Petitioner lived within a quarter of a mile of the home of the deceased. Returning there, he met several parties, and told them what had occurred, and phoned for a doctor.