Crain v. United States
Decision Date | 20 April 1896 |
Docket Number | No. 557,557 |
Citation | 16 S.Ct. 952,162 U.S. 625,40 L.Ed. 1097 |
Parties | CRAIN v. UNITED STATES |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This writ of error brings up for review a judgment in the district court of the United States for the Western district of Arkansas, by which the plaintiff in error was sentenced to imprisonment in the house of correction at Detroit, Mich., at hard labor, for the term of three years.
The defendant was indicated under section 5421 of the Revised Statutes, which provides: 'Every person who falsely makes, alters, forges or counterfeits, or causes or procures to be falsely made, altered, forged or counterfeited or willingly aids or assists in the false making, altering, forging or counterfeiting, any deed, power of attorney, order, certificate, receipt or other writing, for the purpose of obtaining or receiving, or of enabling any other person, either directly or indirectly, to obtain or receive from the United States, or any of their officers or agents, any sum of money; or who utters or publishes as true, or causes to be uttered or published as true, any such false, forged, altered or counterfeited deed, power of attorney, order, certificate, receipt or other writing, with intent to defraud the United States, knowing the same to be false, altered, forged or counterfeited, or who transmits to, or presents at, or causes or procures to be transmitted to, or presented at, any office or officer of the government of the United States, any deed, power of attorney, order, certificate, receipt or other writing, in support of, or in relation to, any account or claim, with intent to defraud the United States, knowing the same to be false, altered, forged or counterfeited, shall be imprisoned at hard labor for a period of not less than one year nor more than ten years, or shall be imprisoned not more than five years and fined not more than one thousand dollars.'
The indictment contained three counts. The first count sets out in full a declaration purporting to have been made by one Spahiga, a resident of the Creek Nation, in the Indian Territory, for an invalid pension, to which was appended a certificate or statement purporting to have been made by two persons named Marrell and Fixico, to the effect that they were present, and saw Spahiga sign his name or make his mark to said declaration, and that they had every reason to believe that he was the identical person that he represented himself to be. The declaration and accompanying certificate or statement purported to have been sworn to on the 4th day of August, 1892, before 'A. W. Crain, U. S. Comm'r, Pension Notary.'
The second count charged:
The third count charged 'that A. W. Crain, on the 4th day of August, A. D. 1892, at the Creek Nation, in the Indian country, within the Western district of Arkansas aforesaid, unlawfully and feloniously did transmit to the office of the commissioner of pensions of the United States, the same being an office under the government of the United States, and for the purpose of defrauding the United States, the false and forged instrument of writing set out in the first count of this indictment, contrary,' etc.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 629-632 intentionally omitted] A. H. Garland and R. C. Garland, for plaintiff in error.
Asst. Atty. Gen. Whitney, for the United States.
Mr. Justice HARLAN, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
The transcript before the court must be taken to be as certified, namely, a true and complete copy of the record and proceedings in this case. It appears from the first order of record in the trial court that the defendant came 'in his own person and by his attorney'; that on motion of the United States, by its attorney, it was 'ordered by the court that a jury come to try the issue joined'; that a jury as selected, impaneled, and sworn 'to try the issue joined, and a true verdict render, according to the law and the evidence'; and that the jury found the defendant 'guilty as charged in the first, second, and third counts of the within indictment.'
The defendant moved, upon written grounds filed, to arrest the judgment, and to set aside the verdict. The grounds of that motion all related to the sufficiency of the several counts of the indictment. The motion was overruled as to the second count, and sustained as to the first and third.
The defendant, on a subsequent day, tendered his bill of exceptions, embodying the motion in arrest of judgment, with the grounds therefor, and at the same time presented an assignment of errors.
The errors assigned by him in the court below, and made part of the record, were (1) the overruling of the motion in arrest of judgment upon the conviction on the second count of the indictment; (2) the rendering of judgment upon the verdict of guilty on that count, and the sentence of imprisonment.
When the accused was brought into court after verdict, it was demanded of him what he had or could say why the sentence of the law upon the verdict of guilty on the second count should not be pronounced against him. He replied that he had nothing further to say than he had theretofore said.
1. One of the objections made to the second count was that it was incomplete, and referred in an uncertain, indefinite manner to documents set forth in the first count. The reference to the declaration and affidavit set forth in the first count indicated the documents that were intended to be incorporated by reference into the second count, and this reference was not affected by the fact that the first count was defective, or by...
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