George Beavers v. William Henkel

• Decision Date: 11 April 1904
• Docket Number: No. 535,535
• Citation: 24 S.Ct. 605,194 U.S. 73,48 L.Ed. 882
• Parties: GEORGE W. BEAVERS, Appt . v. WILLIAM HENKEL, United States Marshal in and for the Southern District of New York
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

194 U.S. 73

24 S.Ct. 605

48 L.Ed. 882

GEORGE W. BEAVERS, Appt.

v WILLIAM HENKEL, United States Marshal in and for the Southern District of New York.

No. 535.

Argued March 9, 10, 1904.

Decided April 11, 1904.

On July 23, 1903, a grand jury of the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of New York found and returned an indictment under § 1781, Rev. Stat. (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1212), charging George W. Beavers, and officer of the government of the United States, with having received money for procuring a contract with the government for the Edward J. Brandt-Dent Company. A warrant for the arrest of the official was issued to the marshal of the district, and returned 'not found.' Thereupon a complaint, supported by affidavit, was filed in the district court of the United States for the southern district of New York, alleging the finding of the indictment, the issue of the warrant, the return 'not found,' and that Beavers was within the southern district of New York. Upon this complaint a warrant was issued, Beavers was arrested and brought before a commissioner. A hearing was had before that officer, and upon his report the district judge of the southern district signed an order of removal to the eastern district. Before this order could be executed Beavers presented his petition to the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of New York for a writ of habeas corpus. After a hearing thereon the application for discharge was denied, and thereupon an appeal was taken to this court.

Messrs. Max D. Stener, Bankson T. Morgan, and William M. Seabury for appellant.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 74-80 intentionally omitted] Assistant Attorney General Purdy for appellee.

[Argument of Counsel from Pages 80-82 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the court:

This case turns upon the efficacy of an indictment in removal proceedings. The government offered no other evidence of petitioner's guilt. His counsel state in their brief:

'The controlling questions to be discussed on this appeal are whether the indictment offered in evidence before the commissioner can be regarded as conclusive evidence against the accused of the facts therein alleged; whether it was competent at all as evidence of such facts, and whether such indictment was entitled to be accorded any probative force whatever.'

At the outset it is well to note that this is not a case of extradition. There was no proposed surrender of petitioner by the United States to the jurisdiction of a foreign nation, no abandonment of the duty of protection which the nation owes to all within its territory. There was not even the qualified extradition which arises when one state within the Union surrenders to another an alleged fugitive from its justice. There was simply an effort on the part of the United States to subject a citizen found within its territory to trial before one of its own courts. The locality in which an offence is alleged to have been committed determines, under the Constitution and laws, the place and court of trial. And the question is, What steps are necessary to bring the alleged offender to that place and before that court?

Obviously, very different considerations are applicable to the two cases. In an extradition the nation surrendering relies for future protection of the alleged offender upon the good faith of the nation to which the surrender is made; while here the full protecting power of the United States is continued after the removal from the place of arrest to the place of trial. It may be conceded that no such removal should be summarily and arbitrarily made. There are risks and burdens attending it which ought not to be needlessly cast upon any individual. These may not be serious in a removal from New York to Brooklyn, but might be if the removal was from San Francisco to New York. And statutory provisions must be interpreted in the light of all that may be done under them. We must never forget that in all controversies, civil or criminal, between the government and an individual, the latter is entitled to reasonable protection. Such seems to have been the purpose of Congress in enacting § 1014, Rev. Stat. (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 716), which requires that the order of removal be issued by the judge of the district in which the defendant is arrested. In other words, the removal is made a judicial rather than a mere ministerial act.

In the light of these considerations we pass to an inquiry into the special matters here presented. Article 5 of the amendments to the Constitution provides:

'No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces or in the militia, when an actual service in time of war or public danger.'

While many states, in the exercise of their undoubted sovereignty (Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516, 28 L. ed. 232, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 111, 292), have provided for trials of criminal offences upon information filed by the prosecuting officer, and without any previous inquiry or action by a grand jury, the national Constitution, in its solicitude for the protection of the individual, requires an indictment as a prerequisite to a trial. The grand jury is a body known to the common law, to which is committed the duty of inquiring whether there be probable cause to believe the defendant guilty of the offense charged. Blackstone says (vol. 4, p. 303):

'This grand jury are previously instructed in the articles of their inquiry, by a charge from the judge who presides upon the bench. They then withdraw, to sit and receive indictments, which are preferred to them in the name of the King, but at the suit of any private prosecutor; and they are only to hear evidence on behalf of the prosecution; for the finding of an indictment is only in the nature of an inquiry or accusation, which is afterwards to be tried and determined; and the grand jury are only to inquire, upon their oaths, whether there be sufficient cause to call upon the party to answer it. A grand jury, however, ought to be thoroughly persuaded of the truth of an indictment, so far as their evidence goes; and not to rest satisfied merely with remote probabilities: a doctrine that might be applied to very...