The State (Woods) v Kelly
Jurisdiction | Ireland |
Judgment Date | 01 January 1969 |
Date | 01 January 1969 |
Docket Number | [1964. No. 96 SS.] |
Court | Supreme Court |
Supreme Court
Criminal Law - Conviction - Warrant - Whether sufficient description of offence in warrant of execution - Habeas corpus - Whether necessary to produce prisoner in court for hearing of application for an order absolute - Constitution of Ireland, 1937, Article 40, s. 4, sub-s. 2.
On appeal from an order of the High Court which had allowed the cause shown by the respondents at the hearing of the prosecutor's motion to have a conditional order of habeas corpus made absolute the prosecutor claimed that he was not in lawful custody as the warrant of imprisonment which had been issued upon his conviction in the Circuit Court merely described the offence of which he had been convicted as "office breaking with intent".The prosecutor also contended that the High Court had no jurisdiction to discharge the conditional order in the absence of the prosecutor, even though he had been represented by counsel at the hearing of the motion.
Held by the Supreme Court ( Ó Dálaigh ó dálaigh C.J., Lavery and Walsh JJ.), in dismissing the appeal, 1, that the description of the offence in the warrant was sufficient.
2. That the power of the High Court, pursuant to Article 40, s. 4 (2), of the Constitution, to order the production of the body of the prisoner is merely an enabling power and did not have to be exercised in order to confer jurisdiction on the High Court.
Habeas Corpus.
The prosecutor, Michael Woods, had been arraigned in the Circuit Court on an indictment containing (inter alia) two counts, namely, "office-breaking with intent contrary to s. 27(2) of the Larceny Act, 1916" and "attempting to steal money". He was tried and convicted on both of the said counts and was sentenced on the 14th July, 1964, to penal servitude for six years from that date on foot of the count of office-breaking and to penal servitude for three years from that date on foot of the count of attempting to steal money—both sentences being directed to run concurrently. The trial judge refused to grant to the prosecutor leave to appeal and his application to the Court of Criminal Appeal for leave to appeal against conviction was refused on the 28th August, 1964.
The prosecutor had been lodged in Mountjoy Prison pursuant to a warrant of execution which had been issued by the Circuit Court. The particulars of conviction and...
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