Ex parte Harfourd

Citations

• 16 Fla. 283

Syllabus

<p>I. Where it appears that a committing magistrate, on complaint that the accused had threatened to do damage-to a schooner, and also to do bodily harm to the complainant, issued a warrant of commitment to the jail for want of sureties against doing- damage to the property and to keep the peace toward the complainant; held, that this was erronc- ‘ ous. Sureties of the peace against doing damage to properly (except as to threats to burn a dwelling-house) are not authorized by the common law or by statute, and imprisonment'for want of such sureties is not allowed by law.</p> <p>3. The commitment having been made for want of bail for an act no* criminal, and also for a criminal act, is irregular. The security should be fixed according to the degree of the_criminal act charged, and the court on habeas corpus should, if required by the accused, hear and examine into the evidence for the purpose of determining what criminal act has been committed, and the probable cause shown against the accused, and this, whether the 'warrant of commitment was regular or irregular.</p>