Opinion
No. 42321.
March 5, 1962.
1. Habeas corpus — bail — appeal dismissed as academic where defendant tried and convicted before issue submitted to Supreme Court.
An appeal from habeas corpus proceeding seeking bail before trial would be dismissed as academic where defendant was tried and convicted before submission on appeal of issue of right to bail before trial.
Headnote as approved by Jones, J.
APPEAL from the Chancery Court of Grenada County; KERMIT R. COFER, Chancellor.
J.P. Coleman, Ackerman, for appellant.
I. To render a case moot, the right asserted must have expired and become in all respects as completely extinct as if it had never existed at all. California Co. v. State Oil and Gas Board, 200 Miss. 824, 27 So.2d 542; Henley v. Kilbas, 188 Miss. 604, 195 So. 582; Thomas v. Ferrell, 184 Miss. 87, 184 So. 425.
II. When the question concerns a matter of such a nature that there should be a declaration and enforcement of a rule for future conduct, the case will not be dismissed as moot. Sartin v. Barlow ex rel Smith, 196 Miss. 159; 16 So.2d 372.
G. Garland Lyell, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
I. By the petition filed herein bail was sought pending trial on the murder charge. Since the trial has now taken place and petitioner convicted, the object of the petition no longer exists. Thus, the question involved is now merely academic. Sartin v. Barlow ex rel Smith, 196 Miss. 159, 16 So.2d 372.
II. Furthermore, if this Court should reverse Chancellor Cofer, the judgment entered here upon reversal or upon remand would be unenforceable and therefore useless. Sheldon v. Ladner, 205 Miss. 264, 38 So.2d 718.
III. Section 29 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 applies to the right to bail before conviction and the right to bail after conviction is not within that section.
IV. After conviction, the right to bail vel non is determined by Section 1180 of the Code. Ex parte Willette, 219 Miss. 785, 63 So.2d 52; Leggett, Sheriff, v. Vannison, 133 Miss. 22, 96 So. 518.
(Hn 1) Appellant being charged with murder instituted habeas corpus proceedings seeking to be allowed bail before trial. Since the disposal of the matter in the lower court and before submission here, we are advised by the briefs of counsel on both sides that he was tried in the circuit court and convicted of murder. The questions here involved have therefore become academic, since bail after conviction is covered by different statutes and laws from bail before conviction. The appeal is therefore dismissed.
Appeal dismissed.
McGehee, C.J., and Kyle, Gillespie and McElroy, JJ., concur.