Ex parte Edgar

John C. Edgar was adjudged guilty of contempt by the superior court of San Diego county, and was punished therefor by a fine of two hundred dollars, with the alternative of imprisonment. This hearing is under his application for a writ of habeas corpus.

The facts giving rise to the alleged contempt are the following: One Joseph Japhet Ebanks was convicted of murder in the first degree before the superior court of San Diego county, and, upon appeal to this court, the judgment of conviction and the order denying him a new trial were affirmed. Thereafter Ebanks was brought before the superior court of San Diego county, which pronounced its order, fixing the day of execution on the eighth day of October, 1897, within the walls .of the state prison at San Quentin. Pursuant to this order Ebanks was delivered to the custody of the warden of that institution. Upon the day fixed for his execution Ebanks made application to the district court of the United States in and for the northern district of California, praying for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he was restrained of his liberty by W. E. Hale) warden of said prison, in violation of his rights under the constitution of the…

The petitioner, Edgar, acting warden of the state prison, asks .to he discharged upon habeas corpus. He has been adjudged guilty of a contempt of the superior court of San Diego county in not carrying out an order of that court directing the execution of one Ebanks, and is now restrained of his liberty. His defense to the alleged contempt is, that by virtue of certain proceedings had in the federal courts a stay of execution was created. These proceedings consisted in the presentation and filing of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of Ebanks before the district court of the northern district of the state of California, a denial of the application for the writ by that court, and an appeal from said order of denial to the supreme court of the United States.

Do the proceedings in the federal courts result in a stay of the execution of the order of the state court commanding the warden to execute Ebanks? If such stay exists, it is by virtue of section 766 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which it is claimed provides for a stay of proceedings pending an appeal from an order made by a district or circuit court refusing the issuance of a writ of habeas…