Holland v. State ex rel. Duval County

Citations

• 23 Fla. 123

Syllabus

<p>1. A statute authorizing the County Commissioners to employ at hard labor upon public works all persons imprisoned in the jails-of the several counties, under sentence upon conviction of crime, or imprisoned for failure to pay fine and costs, is not rendered unconstitutional or made the exercise of a judicial function by the fact that it does not contemplate that its terms shall bo pronounced as a par} of or incorporated in the record of the sentence of the court, or by the fact that they are not so pronounced or incorporated.</p> <p>2. Such a statute is, as against such objections, purely legislative in its character, and violates no provision of the constitution.</p> <p>3. Sections 1 and 2, page 320, McClellan’s Digest, held to repeal section 3, same page.</p> <p>4. Where the sentence is one of imprisonment and costs, the credit of thirty cents per day under said act (sections 1 and 2) is applicable to costs alone, and no credit that may be given the couvice on his costs will operate to limit the power of the County Commissioner's to employ him during the period of his sentence.</p> <p>5. The expense of subsisting a convict after he has been sentenced to such imprisonment is not a part of the “costs.” Such costs are those legally adjudged against him by the senten'ce.</p> <p>■6. Where a statute imposes a power or duty upon a board of officers, and to execute such power or perform such duty it becomes necessary to obtain a writ of'mandamus, they may apply for the same.</p> <p>'7. The County Commissioners, and not the Attorney General, held to he the proper applicants for a mandamus against a Sheriff obstructing the enforcement of the above statute, and that such an application, though made in the name of the county, and not objected to, is sufficient, even assuming it should have been made in their names and official titles as County Commissioners.</p> <p>8. An allegation in an alternative writ of mandamus, of a demand for certain prisoners “confined in the jail