LENIGER v. BURFORD

LENIGER v. BURFORD
1951 OK CR 57
230 P.2d 953
94 Okl.Cr. 79
Case Number: A-11478
Decided: 05/02/1951
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

(Syllabus.)

Habeas Corpus Burden to Show Court Without Jurisdiction to Sentence. Petitioner in order to be entitled to his discharge from imprisonment in the penitentiary on habeas corpus has the burden of showing that the court which sentenced him was without jurisdiction.

Page 80

Original action in habeas corpus by Harold Leniger to secure his release from confinement in the penitentiary. Writ denied.

Harold Leniger, pro se.

Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen., for respondent.

JONES, J.

The petitioner, Harold Leniger, is serving a term of life imprisonment in the State Penitentiary upon a commitment issued by the district court of Logan county upon his conviction for the crime of murder.

This action in habeas corpus was instituted by the petitioner in which he seeks to secure his release from confinement upon the sole ground that the judgment of commitment by which he is restrained of his liberty was not certified by the sentencing judge.

The photostatic copy of the judgment and sentence attached to the petition does not purport to be the original judgment and sentence. It is certified on November 25, 1939 by Irene McClellan, court clerk of Logan county, wherein she certifies that the foregoing judgment and sentence is a true and correct and complete copy of the judgment and sentence as the same appears on file and of record in her office. The name of Henry W. Hoel, district judge, is typed in the judgment and sentence.

The petitioner was apparently laboring under misapprehension as to the effect of the certified copy of the judgment and sentence, and thought that it should contain the original signature of the district judge. Since it purported to be nothing more than a certified copy, the name of the judge could be either written thereon or typed in by the clerk.

The petitioner has made no showing which would justify this court in granting the writ of habeas corpus.

Writ denied.

BRETT, P.J., and POWELL, J., concur.