Johnson v. Warden of Maryland Penitentiary

Marbury, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an application for leave to appeal from an order of Judge France, passed in the Baltimore City Court, remanding the petitioner after a hearing on the writ of habeas corpus. On March 23, 1942, applicant was sentenced to the Maryland House of Correction for four years for larceny by the Circuit Court for Howard County. On September 8, 1942, he was transferred to the Maryland State Reformatory for Males, and on September 11, 1942, he escaped.

He was an escapee for 215 days, and during this period he committed another crime for which he was convicted and sentenced on April 12, 1943 by the Circuit Court for Garrett County to a term of six years beginning from the time of expiration of, or discharge from, the sentence which was pronounced upon him at the March Term 1942 of the Circuit Court for Howard County. On May 20, 1943, he was sentenced in the Circuit Court for Washington County for escape and this sentence was for 2% years, “sentence to begin at the expiration of his present term of confinement”. Applicant raises these questions. He says that at the time of his escape, he was assigned by the officials in charge of the State Reformatory for Males to work ⁶⁷⁴ on a private farm, and he contends that there is no law which provides a penalty for escaping under such circumstances.

He also says that since he was working without guard on a private farm, he comes within the same category as one working on the roads, and that therefore his sentence cannot, by statute, be more than one half of the original term. He further contends that the sentence in Washington County, by its wording, was only consecutive to the original sentence of four years, and should not be added to the six-year Garrett County sentence which succeeded the first sentence. Therefore he says that he has served his two first sentences and is entitled to be