PRISONER'S APPEAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 51, 9 December 1932, Page 6

PRISONER'S APPEAL.

ACTION FOR HABEAS CORPUS REFUSAL OF APPLICATION iPer Press Association).WELLINGTON, This Day. The Full Court, consisting of the Chief Justice (Sir M. Myers) and Justices Reed and Macgregor, is hearing an application made on behalf of Richard Francis Griffin, of Wellington, for a rule nisi calling, on the gaoler of Mount Crawford Prison to show cause why a writ of habeas corpus should not be issued ordering him to bring up the body of Griffin from custody or, alternatively, why Griffin should not be discharged from custody without a writ actually being issued. Earlier in the year, Griffin, with some others, was sentenced to a term of reformative detention for offences in connection with the issue of the "Red Worker." On appeal the sentence was reduced by Mr Justice Reed to 18 months' reformative detention. The application to-day was based on the ground that the sentence of reformative detention, under which lie was detained, was passed without jurisdiction and consequently that the warrant detaining him had also been issued without jurisdiction. Ma- Lloyd W r ilson and Mr Rollings are appearing for prisoners and Mr Evans Scott for the Crown. Counsel for Griffin submitted that the War Regulations Act, 1914, created new offences which stood apart from the main body of the criminal law and this Act must alone be resorted to for penalties following breaches of the provisions of the Act. The Act did not provide for the imposition of reformative detention, therefore the Magistrate had no jurisdiction to impose such a sentence.

v At the conclusion of counsel's argument, without calling upon the Crown, the Court gave judgment dismissing the application. The Chief Justice stated that the dimes Amendment Act, 1910, permitted a Magistrate to impose a sentence of up to thr»e years' reformative detention for offences for which the offender was liable to imprisonment for three months or upwards. As the War Regulations Act, 1914, permitted a Magistrate to impose a sentence of up to 12 months he saw no reason for excluding the operation of the Crimes Amendment Act and was therefore of opinion' that a Magistrate had jurisdiction to impose a sentence of reformative detention. The application would be dismissed, but without costs. Justices Reed and Macgregor concurred.