Ex parte Wadleigh

This is an application for a writ of habeas corpus. The petitioner is confined in the state prison under a conviction of felony, and sentenced to the state prison for five years, and that he pay a fine of one thousand dollars, and be imprisoned in said prison until said fine is satisfied, at the rate of one day for each one dollar of said fine.

It is alleged in the petition: “ That during his imprisonment the said Wadleigh has faithfully fulfilled all the duties assigned to him, and has obeyed the rules and regulations of said prison, and has therefore earned the credits and deductions from his term of sentence allowed him by law; that, allowing said Wadleigh such deductions and credits so allowed him by law, the five years’ imprisonment ordered by said judgment has fully expired, and that said Wadleigh is now held in said prison, as petitioner is informed and believes, solely for the collection of the fine imposed by said judgment.”

*520 The return of the warden does not deny the allegation of the petition that the petitioner has earned the credits and deductions allowed him by law, and that, allowing him such credits, he has served his. full term of imprisonment imposed as a…

I concur, on the ground of the decision in Ex parte Arras, 78 Cal. 304 . In Arras’s case I dissented, and still think it wrongly decided, hut I feel bound now to accept it as settled law in this state.

I concur in the judgment, and in the opinion of Mr. Justice Works. But as it may be thought that some things were decided in Ex parte Arras, 78 Cal. 304 , which were not before the court in that case, I desire to express my doubt whether a defendant can he imprisoned, even in a county jail, beyond the maximum term of imprisonment prescribed by the statute as a punishment for the offense of which he has been convicted. A fine is, no doubt, quite a severe additional punishment to one who is able, and can be forced, to pay it; but after a sentence to the full term of imprisonment provided by law for the offense, to then impose a fine of one thousand or five thousand dollars on an impecunious defendant, known to be utterly incapable of raising one thousand cents, for the mere purpose of prolonging his imprisonment beyond the term prescribed by law, seems to me to be a species of legal jugglery not contemplated by the code. When the code provides that the punishment of imprisonment for a certain offense shall be for a term, for instance, “not exceeding one year,” does it mean that a court *522 may indirectly imprison him for two, or five, or twenty years? The asserted power to do this…