Ex parte Hayworth

Ex parte Hayworth
1926 OK CR 141
244 P. 827
34 Okl.Cr. 41
Decided: 04/06/1926
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

(Syllabus.)

1. Bail Consideration in Fixing Amount of Bail. In fixing the amount of bail, the sole purpose which should guide the court or judge should be to cause the appearance of the accused to answer the charge against him.

2. Same Habeas Corpus On Showing that Amount Fixed by Trial Court Is Excessive, Writ Will Be Allowed and Bail Reduced. On habeas corpus for reduction of bail, where it clearly appears that the amount fixed by the trial court is excessive, and clearly disproportionate to the offense involved, the writ will be allowed.

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Original application by James F. Hayworth for a writ of habeas corpus to be admitted to bail in a sum less than that fixed. Bail allowed and reduced.

Brown Moore, for petitioner.

The Attorney General and Smith C. Matson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

PER CURIAM. This is an application for writ of habeas corpus. It is alleged that petitioner, James F. Hayworth, is restrained of his liberty and unlawfully imprisoned in the county jail of Payne county by the sheriff of said county; that petitioner is charged with manufacturing liquor; that his bail is fixed at the excessive and unreasonable amount of $2,000, for his appearance for trial in the county court of Payne county; that said petitioner is a farmer and residing with his family in said county, and that they have lived in that particular neighborhood for the past nine years; that he has been unable to give said excessive bail, and the same is in violation of his constitutional rights; and that he be admitted to bail in a reasonable sum, in said action now pending before the county court of said county.

The constitutional provision is: "Excessive bail shall not be required." Bill of Rights, § 9. Bail is not to be deemed excessive because the particular person charged cannot give the bail required, but bail should not be exacted for the purpose of punishing a person charged with crime, for no person is punishable for an offense except upon a plea of guilty or upon a conviction by a jury of his peers. Bail is exacted for the purpose of securing the attendance of the defendant at court at all times when his presence may be lawfully required and his rendering himself in execution of any judgment that may be pronounced against him. Ex parte McClellan, 1 Okla. Cr. 299, 97 P. 1019.

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