Holden v. State of Minnesota

• Decision Date: 08 December 1890
• Citation: 34 L.Ed. 734,11 S.Ct. 143,137 U.S. 483
• Parties: HOLDEN v. STATE OF MINNESOTA
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

137 U.S. 483

11 S.Ct. 143

34 L.Ed. 734

HOLDEN v. STATE OF MINNESOTA.

December 8, 1890.

C. C. Willson, for appellant.

Moses E. Clapp and H. W. Childs, for the State.

Mr. Justice HARLAN, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

By an indictment returned May 15, 1889, in the district court of Redwood county, Minn., Clifton Holden was charged with the crime of murder in the first degree, committed in that county on the 23d day of November, 1888. Having been found guilty, and a motion for a new trial having been overruled, he prosecuted an appeal to the supreme court of the state. That court affirmed upon the merits the order denying the motion for a new trial, and remitted the case to the district court. State v. Holden, 42 Minn. 350, 44 N. W. Rep. 123. In the latter court it was adjudged February 18, 1890,th at, as a punishment for the crime of which he had been convicted, Holden be confined in the common jail of Brown county, (there being no jail in Redwood county,) and that thereafter, and after the lapse of three calendar months from the date of the sentence, and at a time to be designated in the warrant of the governor of the state, he be taken to the place of execution and hanged by the neck until dead. Gen. St. Minn. 1878, c. 117, § 1.

On the 21st of May, 1890, the governor issued a warrant to the sheriff, which, after reciting the judgment, commanded and required him to cause execution of the sentence of the law to be done upon the convict on Friday, the 27th day of June, 1890, before the hour of sunrise of the day last named, at a place in the county of Redwood, to be selected by such officer, 'conformably with the provisions of section 3 of an act entitled 'An act providing for the mode of inflicting the punishment of death, the manner in which the same shall be carried into effect, and declaring a violation of any of the provisions of this act to be a misdemeanor,' approved April 24, 1889.'

The accused, being in custody under the above judgment and warrant, presented to the circuit court of the United States for the district of Minnesota his written application for a writ of habeas corpus, based upon the ground that he was restrained of his liberty in violation of the constitution of the United States. The writ was issued, and the officers having charge of the accused made a return to which the petitioner filed an answer. The attorney general of Minnesota appeared on behalf of the state, insisting that the detention of the petitioner was not in violation of the supreme law of the land. Upon final hearing, the application for discharge was denied. From that order the present appeal was taken under section 764 of the Revised Statutes as amended by the act of March 3, 1885, (23 St. c. 353, p. 437.)

The principal question before us depends upon the effect to be given to the act, referred to in the governor's warrant, of April 24, 1889. That act is as follows:

'§ 1. The mode of inflicting the punishment of death shall in all cases be hanging by the neck until the person is dead. § 2. Whenever the punishment of death is inflicted upon any convict in obedience to a warrant from the governor of the state, the sheriff of the county shall be present at the execution, unless prevented by sickness or other casualty; and he may have such military guard as he may think proper. He shall return the warrant with a statement under his hand of doings thereon as soon as may be after the said execution to the governor, and shall also file in the clerk's office of the court where the conviction was had an attested copy of the warrant and statement aforesaid, and the clerk shall subjoin a brief abstract of such statement to the record of conviction and sentence. § 3. The warrant of execution shall be executed before the hour of sunrise of the day designated in the warrant and within the walls of the jail in all cases where the jail is so constructed that it can be conveniently done therein; but, when the jail is not so constructed, the warrant shall be executed within an inclosure which shall be higher than the gallows, and shall exclude the view of persons outside, and which shall be prepared for that purpose, under the direction of the sheriff, in the immediate vicinity of the jail; or, if there be no jail in the county, at some convenient place at the county-seat, to be selected by the sheriff. § 4. After the issue of the warrant for execution by the governor, the prisoner shall be kept in solitary confinement, and the following persons shall be allowed to visit him, but none other, viz.: The sheriff and his deputies, the prisoner's counsel, any priest or clergyman the prisoner may select, and the members of his immediate family. § 5. Besides the sheriff and his assistants, the following persons may be present at the execution, but none other: The clergy man or priest i a ttendance upon the prisoner, and such other persons as the prisoner may designate, not exceeding three in number, a physician or surgeon, to be selected by the sheriff, and such other persons as the sheriff may designate, not exceeding six in number, but no person so admitted shall be a newspaper reporter or representative. No account of the details of such execution, beyond the statement of the fact that such convict was on the day in question duly executed according to law, shall be published in any newspaper. § 6. Any person who shall violate or omit to comply with any of the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

§ 7. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. § 8. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.' Gen. Laws Minn. 1889, c. 20, p. 66.

The contention of the appellant is that by the law of Minnesota, in force when the alleged crime was committed, and up to the passage of the act of April 24, 1889, the punishment for murder in the first degree was death, without solitary confinement of the convict; that the act of that date, adding the penalty of solitary confinement between the date of the governor's warrant and the execution, would, if applied to previous offenses, be ex post facto in its nature, and therefore was inconsistent with the prior law; and that inasmuch as that act made no saving as to previous offenses, and repealed all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with its provisions, there was no statute in force, after the 24th of April, 1889, prescribing the punishment of death for murder in the first degree committed before that date. While this may not be expressed in terms, it is, in fact, the contention of the appellant, the argument in his behalf necessarily leading to this conclusion; for he insists that the repeal by the seventh section of the act of 1889 of all prior inconsistent laws was an act of complete amnesty in respect to all offenses of murder in the first degree previously committed, making subsequent imprisonment therefor illegal. Whether such was the result of that act, interpreted in the light of prior statutes, is the principal question on this appeal.

By the General Statutes of Minnesota in force at the close of the legislative session of 1878, it was provided (chapter 94) that the killing of a human being, without the authority of law, and with a premeditated disign to effect the death of the person killed, or any human being, was murder in the first degree, (section 1;) and that whoever was convicted thereof should suffer the penalty of death, and be kept in solitary confinement for a period of not less than one month nor more than six months, in the discretion of the judge before whom the conviction was had, at the expiration of which time it became the duty of the governor to issue his warrant of execution. Gen. St. 1878, § 2, pp. 882, 883. Other sections of the same chapter were as follows: '§ 3. The penalty of death as a punishment for crime is hereby abolished in this state, except in the cases provided for in section two of this act, and hereafter the penalty for the crime of murder in the first degree shall be as prescribed in sections two and three of this act.' Gen. Laws 1868, c. 88, § 1. '§ 4. Whenever, upon the trial of any person upon an indictment for murder in the first degree, the jury shall have agreed upon a verdict of guilty of such offense, such jury may also determine in the same manner that the person so convicted shall be punished by death, and, if they so determine, shall render their verdict accordingly; and, in such case, the person so convicted shall be punished by death, as prescribed by section two of chapter ninety-four of the General Statutes for the punishment of murder in the first degree.' Gen. Laws 1868, § 2. '§ 5. Whoever shall be convicted of murder in the first degree, if the jury upon whose conviction the penalty is inflicted shall not by their verdict prescribe the en alty of death, shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor in the state-prison during the remainder of the term of his natural life, with solitary confinement upon bread and water diet for twelve days in each year during the term, to be apportioned in periods of not exceeding three days' duration each, with an interval of not less than fourteen days intervening each two successive periods.' Gen. Laws 1868, § 3. '§ 6. The provisions of this act shall not apply nor extend to an act done nor offense committed prior to the passage hereof; but the provisions of law now in force, and applicable to the crime of murder in the first degree, as well in respect to the penalty affixed to the commission of such crime as in all other respects, shall be and remain in full force and effect as to any such offense heretofore committed.' Gen. Laws 1868, § 4. '§ 7. That in all cases where the time of imprisonment is during life, solitary imprisonment in the state-prison is hereby abolished, except for prison discipline.' Gen. Laws 1876, c. 79, § 1.

By chapter 118 of the...