Ex parte Liddell

Ex parte Liddell
1928 OK CR 87
264 P. 637
39 Okl.Cr. 190
Decided: 02/29/1928
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

(Syllabus.)

1. Constitutional Provisions. Under Const. art. 2, § 8, one accused of criminal offense is entitled to bail unless proof of guilt is evident or presumption thereof great.

2. Bail Person Accused of Murder and Robbery with Firearms Held Under Evidence, Entitled to Bail. In an application for bail, evidence considered, and held to show that petitioner is entitled to bail as a matter of legal right.

Original application by D.V. Liddell for habeas corpus to be admitted to bail. Bail allowed.

Sigler & Jackson, Adams & Jones, and J.W. Dixon, for petitioner.

Edwin Dabney, Atty. Gen., and Fred Hansen, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

DOYLE, P.J. In this proceeding petitioner filed in

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this court on February 23, 1928, a duly verified petition for writ of habeas corpus to be admitted to bail.

It appears that petitioner was committed by T.R. Thompson, a justice of the peace in Love county, after a preliminary examination, and without bail, to answer in the district court of that county upon a complaint charging him with the murder of one S.C. Long, and that he was committed by said magistrate on another complaint wherein he was charged with the crime of robbery with firearms, and without bail; said commitments having issued on February 14, 1928; that thereafter he made application to the district court of Love county for bail in each case, which was denied.

It is further averred that he is not guilty of said crimes, or either of them, and that the proof of his guilt is not evident or the presumption thereof great.

Attached to the petition is a copy of all the testimony taken on the examining trial and all the testimony taken before the district court of Love county upon his said application for bail.

As to the contention on the part of petitioner that he is entitled to be let to bail, we deem it sufficient to say that the Attorney General concedes that in each of these cases bail should be allowed.

It is the uniform holding of this court that under the constitutional provisions (article 2, § 8) one charged with a capital offense is entitled to bail as an absolute right unless the proof of guilt is evident or the presumption thereof great.

Upon a consideration of the testimony we are of opinion that the petitioner is entitled to bail as a matter of legal right in each case.

It is therefore adjudged and ordered that said

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petitioner be admitted to bail on the charge of murder now pending against him, and his bail is hereby fixed in the sum of $20,000.