EX PARTE BLUNT

EX PARTE BLUNT
1950 OK CR 112
222 P.2d 527
92 Okl.Cr. 234
Case Number: A-11469
Decided: 09/20/1950
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

(Syllabus.)

1. Bail Burden of Proof on Applicant for Admission to Bail in Murder Case. On a hearing of an application for bail by the person informed against for murder, to determine whether or not the proof is evident, or the presumption thereof great, the burden of proof is on the petitioner.

2. Same Insufficiency of Evidence to Entitle Petitioner to Bail. The evidence is insufficient to entitle the petitioner to bail.

Selma Blunt filed original proceeding in habeas corpus to be admitted to bail upon charge of murder. Bail denied.

James Bounds, Hugo, for petitioner.

Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen., and Sam H. Lattimore, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

BRETT, J.

This is an original proceeding in habeas corpus, instituted by the petitioner, Selma Blunt, for the purpose of being admitted to bail, upon a charge of murder, now pending in Choctaw county, Oklahoma.

The verified petition alleges the petitioner is being unlawfully restrained of his liberty in the county jail of Choctaw county, Oklahoma, by the sheriff thereof. A preliminary hearing is alleged to have been had before A.R. Ayers as examining magistrate on March 9, 1950, and the petitioner was thereupon held to answer in the district court of said county to a charge of murder. Thereafter the petitioner made application to the district court of Choctaw county, Oklahoma, for admission to bail on April 17, 1950, which was denied. Attached to the petition for habeas corpus is a transcript of the evidence taken before said district court.

Page 235

In such proceeding the burden is upon the petitioner to establish that the proof of guilt is not evident or the presumption thereof great. Ex parte Langley, 84 Okla. Cr. 394, 182 P.2d 785. We deem it inadvisable to discuss the evidence taken in the proceeding in the district court. It is sufficient to say that the defendant has wholly failed to sustain the burden herein. In fact, at the time of the hearing herein an order was made and entered expressing the opinion of the court that the proof of guilt was evident and the presumption thereof great, and that the petitioner should be held in the custody of the sheriff of Choctaw county, Oklahoma, pending trial in the district court. In conformity with that order it is the judgment of the court that the defendant be and hereby is denied bail.

JONES, P.J., and POWELL, J., concur.