George Collins v. James Johnston
| Decision Date | 17 May 1915 |
| Docket Number | No. 594,594 |
| Citation | 35 S.Ct. 649,59 L.Ed. 1071,237 U.S. 502 |
| Parties | GEORGE D. COLLINS, Appt., v. JAMES A. JOHNSTON, Warden of the State Prison of the State of California, at San Quentin, etc |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Mr. George D. Collins, in propria persona, for appellant.
Messrs. Raymond Benjamin and Robert W. Harrison, and Mr. U. S. Webb, Attorney General of California, for appellee.
This is an appeal, taken under § 238, Judicial Code [36 Stat. at L. 1157, chap. 231, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 1215], to review a final order of the district court of the United States for the northern district of California, denying appellant's petition for a writ of habeas corpus to be addressed to appellee, as warden of the state prison of the state of California, in whose custody appellant alleges he is held in violation of the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States. The petition was based upon § 753, Rev. Stat. (Comp. Stat. 1913, § 1281), and was denied under § 755 upon the ground that, on the face of it, the petitioner was not entitled to the writ.
Appellant is held under the authority of a judgment of the superior court in and for the city and county of San Francisco, in the state of California, imposing a sentence of imprisonment for the term of fourteen years, upon his conviction for perjury upon an indictment presented December 29, 1905. The allegations of fact upon which the Federal questions are raised are somewhat involved, and not easily understood without reference to previous proceedings set forth in Collins v. O'Neil, 214 U. S. 113, 53 L. ed. 933, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 573, of which appellant asks us to take judicial notice. Reading the averments of the petition with this aid, the following facts appear: On July 13, 1905, appellant was indicted by the grand jury of the city and county of San Francisco for the crime of perjury, committed in the giving of testimony in an action pending in a court of that county wherein one Charlotta Collins was plaintiff and appellant was defendant, in which she sought to obtain maintenance, support, and alimony for herself and her child; the alleged false testimony being that the said Charlotta and appellant did not intermarry on May 15, 1889, or at any other time, and were never husband and wife. To answer this indictment appellant was extradited from Canada, and he was put upon trial in the month of December before the superior court of the city and county of San Francisco. The jury disagreed, and while appellant was in custody awaiting a further trial he was, on December 29, 1905, again indicted for perjury, the offense being alleged to have been committed in the giving of evidence upon the trial of the first indictment, in that he falsely testified that on May 15, 1889, at a specified place in the city of San Francisco, a marriage ceremony was performed between him and one Agnes Newman, whereas in truth, at the time and place specified, a marriage ceremony was performed between him and one Charlotta Newman. Before being placed on trial upon the second indictment, appellant applied to the United States circuit court for the northern district of California for a writ of habeas corpus, which was denied. 149 Fed. 573. He was then tried, found guilty, and sentenced; the judgment was affirmed by the district court of appeal, and a petition to have the cause heard in the supreme court was denied. 6 Cal. App. 492, 92 Pac. 513. Meanwhile, successive applications for habeas corpus were made to the United States district and circuit courts for the northern district of California and denied. 151 Fed. 358, 154 Fed. 980. And the supreme court of California, having entertained such an application, overruled his contentions and remanded him to the custody of the sheriff. 151 Cal. 340, 351, 129 Am. St. Rep. 122, 90 Pac. 827, 91 Pac. 397. This court reviewed the decision of the state supreme court, and the decision of the United States circuit court, reported in 154 Fed. 980, with the result that both were affirmed. 214 U. S. 113.
It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the doctrine, thoroughly established and recently re-stated, that in habeas corpus proceedings we are confined to the examination of fundamental and jurisdictional questions, and that the writ cannot be employed as a substitute for a writ of error. Frank v. Mangum, decided April 19, 1915, 237 U. S. 309, 59 L. ed. ——, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 582.
In his petition and in voluminous briefs appellant raises numerous questions, of which it is sufficient to mention the following:
(1) He contends that he was deprived of due process of law, in violation of the 14th Amendment, in that the trial court arbitrarily denied and refused to consider a valid and legally conclusive defense offered by him upon the trial of the second indictment, which resulted in the conviction upon which he is now held in custody. The alleged defense was: that testimony relating to the question of fact whether a ceremonial marriage took place on May 15, 1889, between him and Charlotta Newman could not be material to the issue upon the first indictment, nor furnish valid or competent foundation for a charge of perjury, because the marriage, if performed, was a nullity; and this because at a previous time appellant and Agnes Newman intermarried by written and mutual contract of marriage per verba de proesenti, followed by consummation and a public and mutual assumption of marital rights, duties, and obligations, which marriage continued to exist until dissolved by the death of Agnes in the month of May, 1901, and because of this previous marriage any marriage ceremony between appellant and Charlotta on May 15, A. D. 1889, was void by § 61 of the Civil Code of California. But, plainly, the question whether testimony respecting the alleged ceremony was material upon the trial of the first indictment was to be determined by considering the nature of the issue that was then being tried, and the state of the other evidence that had been introduced at the time the alleged false testimony was given; not by re-examining the merits of that issue or the truth of the other evidence. The principal questions at issue upon the former trial, so far as appears, were: (a) Did appellant enter into a ceremonial marriage with Charlotta on the date named? (b) Was he, at that time, already married to Agnes, then still living? These were questions of fact; if both were answered in the affirmative, the marriage with Charlotta, although made in fact, was void in law. In order for the prosecution to succeed, the first must be answered in the affirmative, the second in the negative; hence, testimony bearing upon either was material. The alleged false testimony of appellant tended to prove the negative of the first question. Manifestly, when he was afterwards tried upon an indictment for perjury based upon that testimony, no legitimate light could be thrown upon the question of its materiality or of its falsity by re-trying the second question of fact or the legal conclusions resulting therefrom. This matter was sufficiently disposed of by the state court of appeal in 6 Cal. App. 492, 498, 500, 503.
Nor are we able to see that the refusal of the proffered defense, even were such refusal erroneous, could at all affect the jurisdiction of the court, or amount to more than an error committed in the exercise of jurisdiction. The averment that the defense was 'arbitrarily refused' merely states a conclusion of law, and is of no effect in the absence of facts sufficient to show that the ruling was in truth arbitrary; and no such facts are alleged.
(2) A second contention is that the judgment under which appellant is held in custody is not the judgment of the superior court in and for the city and county of San Francisco, or of any legally constituted court of judicature, because Judge Burnett, who presided at the trial and rendered the judgment, was not a judge de facto or de jure of that court, but was a judge of the superior court for another county in said state, and presided at appellant's trial at the request of the governor, and without the consent or stipulation of appellant, or any request of the judges of the San Francisco superior court. This contention is to to be tested by the state Constitution, of which the pertinent provisions, as they stood at the time of appellant's conviction, are as follows:
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