Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1909 — TO KNOW SOON. [ARTICLE]

TO KNOW SOON.

McCoy Case Taken Under Advisement. THE HEARING HAD LAST SATURDAY Judge Tuthill will Decide Next Saturday Whether the Banker Shall Be Released. 4* Michigan City, Ind., Feb. 22. After an all-day argument Saturday in the case of Thomas J. McCoy, a former banker of Rensselaer, who is serving a one to three year term in the State Prison, against J. D. Reid, the State Prison warden, Judge H. B. Tuthill took the matter under advisement until' next Saturday, when he will decide whether McCoy shall have his freedom or remain in prison until June 19 next. McCoy petitioned the court a week ago for a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that he was illegally held because he was entitled to six months’ good time under the good time act of 1883. If he is entitled to good time, as he claims he should have been discharged on December 19, 1908, and if he is not entitled to it he should not be discharged until June 19 next, the expiration of his maximum time.

The argument which followed a motion by counsel for the State to quash the writ on the ground that the petition did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action and that the action was a collateral attack on the judgment of the court of White county, turned the point whether the good time law of 1883 was repealed by the enactment of the indeterminate law of 1897.

The defense argued that the old law was repealed by implication in the passage of the new act, the effect of which was similar to the Old law and that the wording of all Supreme Court decisions affecting the new law implied that the old law was no longer in force. On the other hand McCoy’s attorneys argued that there was no repeal clause in the new Law and that there was nothing to warrant the belief that the old law was repealed, except the implication involved in the passage of a new law the purpose of which was entirely different from the old because the law of 1897 was reformatory in character and the old law was an inducement to a convict to behave himself in prison. ~ McCoy was represented by George Haywood, John F. McHugh and Charles A. Barfiett, of Lafayette, and counsel for the State were J. F. Gallagher, of this city, and Frank Osborn and W. A. McVey, of Laporte.