Higgins v. Brown
| Decision Date | 09 March 1908 |
| Docket Number | Case Number: 23 |
| Parties | HIGGINS v. BROWN, Judge, et al. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
¶0 1. COURTS--Territorial Courts--Admission of State--Transfer of Causes. Sections 16 and 20, inclusive, of the enabling act for Oklahoma, Act June 16, 1906, c. 3335, 34 Stat. 276, 277, as amended March 4, 1907, c.2911, 34 Stat. 1286, 1287, when concurred in by the state of Oklahoma by the adoption of sections 27 and 28 of the Schedule to the Constitution, being a proper exercise of power by the Congress under article 4, sec. 3, of the Constitution of the United States, are valid.
2. SAME--Pending Indictment for Murder. An indictment for the crime of murder, alleged to have been committed within the jurisdiction of the United States court for the Northern District of the Indian Territory, and pending in said court on the admission of the state into the Union, is cognizable in the district court of the state, as its successor, in the county in which the offense was committed.
3. MANDAMUS--When Writ Issues. A writ of mandamus is subject to the legal and equitable discretion of the court, and it ought not to be issued in cases of doubtful right. But it is the only adequate mode of relief where an inferior tribunal refuses to act upon the subject brought properly before it.
Application of Elmer Higgins for a writ of mandamus to T. L. Brown, judge of the Second Judicial District, and H. Stephens, sheriff. Writ granted, on condition.
On the 18th day of December, 1907, the relator instituted this action in this court, alleging that he was in the custody of the United States marshal for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. That theretofore, to wit, on the 9th day of May, 1906, he was indicted in the United States court for the Northern District of the Indian Territory, at Claremore, charged therein with having, on the 10th day of April, 1906, killed one John Hancock in such a manner as to constitute the crime of murder, and upon the return of the indictment he was committed by proper order of said court to the federal jail at Vinita in said district, and that he has ever since said time remained in said jail, and since the admission of the state into the Union he has been in the custody of the United States marshal of said district. That on the 3d day of December, 1907, he filed this petition in the United States court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, praying for his release and discharge, and that on the 4th day of said month the judge of said court issued an order directing the marshal to deliver relator over to the proper officers of said district court of the Second judicial district in and for Rogers county. Thereafter, in compliance with said order, said marshal offered to deliver said relator to the respondent Hiram Stephens, sheriff of Rogers county, and that as such sheriff he refused and declined, and still refuses and declines, to receive relator into his custody. Further, that said T. L. Brown, as judge of the said court, refused to receive and entertain jurisdiction in said cause against the relator, and refused to permit the same to be filed and docketed and become a part of the records of said court. Relator further says that by reason of the refusal of said respondent Hiram Stephens, as sheriff, to receive him into custody, and by reason of said respondent T. L. Brown, judge of said district, refusing to entertain jurisdiction of said cause, this relator is unable to have his cause set for trial, and unable to have bond fixed for his appearance in said court, and that he has no adequate remedy at law to have his rights determined in the premises. Wherefore he prays for a peremptory writ of mandamus to issue from this court, directed to the said respondents, requiring them to take proper action in the premises.
The respondents and the relator, by written stipulation filed in this court on the same date of said petition, agreed that said relator is confined in the United States jail at Vinita in the custody of the United States marshal for said district, by virtue of an indictment regularly returned to the United States court for the Northern District of the Indian Territory, at Claremore, on the 9th day of May, 1906, charging relator with the crime of murder. Further, that at the time of the admission of said state into the Union the cause was pending in the United States court for the Northern District of the Indian Territory at Claremore, now the county seat of Rogers county, Okla. That on the 4th day of December, 1907, relator secured an order from the judge of the United States court for the Eastern District, directing the United States marshal for said district to deliver relator to the proper officers of the district court of the Second judicial district of said state for Rogers county. In compliance with said order said relator was tendered to said respondent sheriff, and said sheriff refused to accept said relator on the grounds that the district court of said district had no jurisdiction over said relator, and therefore he was not a proper person to be received into custody by the said officers. That the said T. L. Brown, judge of the said district, refused to entertain jurisdiction of the said relator, and still refuses to, on the ground that said district court was without jurisdiction to hear and determine said cause or make any order therein. That the relator is now in the United States jail at Vinita in the Eastern District of Oklahoma, awaiting action on the part of the sheriff to receive said relator into custody, and that the said relator cannot obtain a hearing on said cause on an application for bail or fix the date of hearing of said cause against him.
Sidell & Shipman and Leahy & Scott, for the relator.
Charles West, Atty. Gen., and W. C. Reaves, for respondents.
¶1 (). The question is raised as to whether or not Congress, with the concurrence of the state, could provide that the state courts, as successors to the territorial courts, should have jurisdiction to proceed with the final determination or render final judgments in criminal cases, not of a federal character, pending and not finally disposed of, in the district courts of the territory of Oklahoma or in the United States courts in the Indian Territory.
¶2 The following states were admitted into the Union without any express provision in the respective enabling acts or acts of Congress for the same to be admitted into the Union, relative to pending cases, not of a federal nature, except as hereinafter stated, and without any express reference as to crimes committed prior to the date of the admission of the state into the Union where prosecutions had not been begun:
¶3 Vermont, 1791; Kentucky, 1792; Tennessee, 1796; Ohio, 1803; Louisiana, 1812; Indiana, 1816; Mississippi, 1817; Illinois, 1818; Alabama, 1819; Maine, 1820; Missouri, 1820; Arkansas, 1836; Michigan, 1837; Texas, 1845; Florida, 1845; Iowa 1846; Wisconsin, 1848; California, 1850; Minnesota, 1858; Oregon, 1859, Kansas, 1861; West Virginia, 1862; Nevada, 1864; Nebraska, 1867; Colorado, 1876; Montana, 1889; North Dakota, 1889; South Dakota, 1889; Washington, 1889; Idaho, 1890; Wyoming, 1890; Utah, 1896.
¶4 Florida: Section 1 of chapter 17 of an act to regulate the exercise of the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States, in certain cases, and for other purposes, Act. Feb. 22, 1847, c. 17, 9 Star. 128, provides:
"That all and singular the records of the proceedings in the several cases which were pending in the superior courts of the late territory of Florida, under and by virtue of the act of Congress of the twenty-third of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-eight, entitled 'An act supplementary to the several acts providing for the settlement and confirmation of private land claims in Florida.' and under and by virtue of an act entitled 'An act to provide for the final settlement of land claims in Florida,' approved twenty-sixth May, eighteen hundred and thirty, and in the several cases which were pending in the Court of Appeals of the same territory, on the 3rd day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, and all and singular the records of the proceedings in the several cases in which judgments or decrees had been rendered in the said courts on or before that day, and from which writs of error could have been sued out or appeals could have been taken, or from which writs of error had been sued out or appeals had been taken, and prosecuted to the Supreme Court of the United States, according to the laws of the United States, which were in force on the said third day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, shall, from and after the passing of this act, be transferred to and deposited in the District Court of the United States for the District of Florida."
¶5 Section 3 of said act further provides:
"And be it further enacted, that in all cases in which judgment or decrees have been rendered in the said superior courts or Court of Appeals of the late territory of Florida, and from which writs of error have been sued out or appeals have been taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, the said Supreme Court shall be, and is hereby, authorized to hear and determine the same, and the mandates of the said Supreme Court for the execution of the judgments or decrees so to be rendered by them, and all other writs which may be necessary in the exercise of the appellate jurisdiction of the said court in such cases, shall be directed to the District Court of the United States for the District of Florida; and the said District Court shall cause the same to be executed and obeyed."
¶6 Section 4 of said act further provided:
"And be it further enacted, that the District Court of the United States for the District of Florida shall take cognizance of all eases which were pending and...
To continue reading
Request your trial