In re Claasen

Decision Date11 May 1891
PartiesIn re CLAASEN
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

H. M. Hetchings, for motion for leave to file.

W. H. H. Miller, Atty. Gen., and Edward Mitchell, Dist. Atty., for motion to vacate supersedeas.

Geo. F. Edmunds, amicus curiae.

BLATCHFORD, J.

Peter J. Claasen, having been indicted under section 5209 of the Revised Statutes, in the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of New York, was, on the 28th of May, 1890, on a trial before the court, held by Judge BENEDICT, district judge for the eastern district of New York, and a jury, found guilty on five of the counts of the indictment. The term of that court at which the indictment was tried was one appointed exclusively for the trial and disposal of criminal business, and was held by Judge BENEDICT under the provision of section 613 of the Revised Statutes, which enacts that 'the terms of the circuit court for the southern district of New York, appointed exclusively for the trial and disposal of criminal business, may be held by the circuit judge of the second judicial court [circuit] and the district judges for the southern and eastern districts of New York, or any one of said three judges.' That term adjourned on the day before the third Wednesday in June, 1890. On the 24th of October, 1890, the defendant made a motion for a new trial and in arrest of judgment. At a like term of said court, held by the circuit judge of the second judicial circuit and the district judges for the southern and eastern dis- tricts of New York, and which began on the second Wednesday in October, 1890, this motion was heard upon the minutes of the trial, as settled and signed by Judge BENEDICT, and printed under the provisions ofa r ule of the court. The motion was denied in December, 1890. Before the defendant was sentenced under his conviction, congress passed the act of March 3, 1891, entitled 'An act to establish circuit courts of appeals, and to define and regulate in certain cases the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, and for other purposes.' The fifth section of that act provides that a writ of error may be taken from an existing circuit court direct to the supreme court of the United States in the following cases, among others, 'in cases of conviction of a capital or otherwise infamous crime.' By a joint resolution approved March 3, 1891, entitled 'joint resolution to provide for the organization of the circuit courts of appeals,' it was provided that nothing in the above-mentioned act of March 3, 1891, should be held or construed in any wise to impair the jurisdiction of the supreme court or of any circuit court of the United States, 'in any case now pending before it, or in respect of any case wherein the writ of error' should have been sued out before July 1, 1891. On the 18th of March, 1891, the defendant was sentenced by the circuit court to be imprisoned for a term of six years in the Erie county penitentiary. On the 21st of March, 1891, a writ of error to the circuit court from this court was allowed by an associate justice of this court, and a citation signed, returnable here on the second Monday of April, 1891, with this direction, made by such associate justice: 'This writ is to operate as a supersedeas and stay of execution, with leave to the United States to move the supreme Court of the United States, on notice, to vacate the stay, as having been granted without authority of law.' On the same 21st of March, 1891, the defendant filed in the circuit court an assignment of errors, and on the 25th of March, 1891, the attorney of the United States served on the attorney for the defendant a joinder in error, having previously filed the same in the office of the clerk of the court. Thereafter the counsel for the defendant prepared a bill of exceptions, containing the matters supposed to be necessary to present for consideration the errors specified in the said assignment of errors, which latter paper contained additional specifications of error to those covered by the minutes of the trial, as settled by Judge BENEDICT, upon which the motion for a new trial and in arrest of judgment was so made. That bill of exceptions was, on the 18th of April, 1891, presented to Judge BENEDICT for settlement, the United States attorney attending on notice and on service of a copy of the proposed bill of exceptions. The time to file and docket the record in this court has been enlarged so that it has not yet expired; and the term of the circuit court at which the defendant was sentenced has not yet expired, and will not expire until May 12, 1891. On the presentation of the bill of exceptions to Judge BENEDICT, the United States attorney objected to the settlement of any bill of exceptions, for reasons including, among others, those stated in an opinion given by Judge BENEDICT on the 23d of April, 1891, refusing to settle and allow the bill. The defendant now moves for leave to file a petition for a writ of mandamus, which sets forth the foregoing facts; and the motion has been argued on behalf of the petitioner and of the United States. The petition prays for a writ of mandamus to Judge BENEDICT, commanding him to settle and allow the bill of exceptions according to the truth of the matters which took place before him on the trial of the indictment, and to sign it, when settled and allowed, as of the 10th of April, 1891, the time a copy of it was served upon the United States attorney with notice of settlement. It is stated in the opinion of Judge BENEDICT that the minutes of the trial, on which the motion for a new trial and in arrest of judgment was made, contained some exceptions that were noted at the trial, and omitted others, and were settled by consent and signed by him. It appears from the eco rd that this was done on July 9, 1890, and that on the same day the printed case, as settled, was filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court. The record also shows, that on the 24th of October, 1890, before the hearing of the motion for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, a motion was made on the part of the defendant, before the court held by the three judges, to insert in the record exceptions which did not appear in the minutes of the trial as so settled and filed; that that application was denied; and that the case was then heard. It appears from the opinion that the ground on which Judge BENEDICT refused to sertle or sign the bill of exceptions was that, as the defendant had presented for his signature the minutes of the trial, and he had signed them, and they had been incorporated in the record with the consent of the defendant, and the case had been heard and decided by the three judges upon those minutes, the record was complete, and contained a sufficiently authenticated statement of the only exceptions which were open to review on the writ of error; that all other exceptions had been waived and abandoned; and that there was no occasion for any bill of exceptions other than, or different from, the one already incorporated in the record. The opinion also says that the act of March 3, 1891, giving to this court the right to review the record in this case upon the writ of error, applies to the record as it stood complete, in the matter of the exceptions taken at the trial, when the statute was passed, and had no effect to revive exceptions which had been waived and abandoned, and does not require or permit a second bill of exceptions to be incorporated into the record as it stood at the time of the passage of the act.

We are of opinion that the act of March 3, 1891, went into immediate operation, so as to permit a writ of error to be allowed in the present case, as the final judgment against the defendant, by his sentence, was not rendered until March 18, 1891. The case was one of conviction of an 'infamous crime,' within the meaning of the act, as those words have been heretofore interpreted by this court. It was held in Ex parte Wilson, 114 U. S. 417, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 935, that a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term of years at hard labor is an infamous crime, within the meaning of...

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