Commonwealth ex rel. Fagan v. Francies

Citations

• 53 Pa. Super. 278
• 1913 Pa. Super. LEXIS 166

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Abduction of a female.</p> <p>1. The abduction of a female, without more, is not an indictable offense at common law; nor is it indictable under the Acts of March 31, 1860, P. L. 382, February 25, 1875, P. L. 4, May 28, 1885, P. L. 27, or April 4,1901, P. L. 65.</p> <p>Criminal law — Pleading—Plea of guilty — Sentence without indictment — Act of April 16, 1907, P. L. 62.</p> <p>2. There is no statute, nor principle of the common law, which even upon a plea of guilty, will sustain a sentence to the penitentiary as for an infamous crime, in the absence of an accusation sufficient in substance to bring the case within the jurisdiction of the court imposing sentence.</p> <p>3. Under the Act of April 15,1907, P. L. 62, providing the procedure when a defendant pleads guilty, the court has no power to sentence such a person unless a bill of indictment in the usual form shall have been prepared by the district attorney, and the plea of guilty shall have been entered thereon.</p> <p>4. In a criminal prosecution there was indorsed on the back of the justice’s transcript the following words: “Oct. 10,1910,1 hereby waive the finding of the Grand Jury in within charge, and plead guilty thereto. William Fagan.” The charge referred to in the transcript was: “The abduction of Laura Hammel, a female child under the age of sixteen years.” No indictment was found by the grand jury, nor prepared by the district attorney, and the defendant was sentenced to the penitentiary without further proceedings. There was evidence that the prisoner had really been sentenced for statutory rape to which he had also pleaded guilty and for which he had been returned on the same day and by the same magistrate as the return for abduction, and that the clerk had made a mistake in recording the sentence. Held, that the sentence was illegal, and that the prisoner was entitled to his discharge in habeas corpus proceedings.</p> <p>5.. While a writ of habeas corpus is not a writ of error, a