Logan v. United States

• Decision Date: 04 April 1892
• Citation: 36 L.Ed. 429,144 U.S. 263,12 S.Ct. 617
• Parties: LOGAN et al. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

144 U.S. 263

12 S.Ct. 617

36 L.Ed. 429

LOGAN et al. v. UNITED STATES.

April 4, 1892.

STATEMENT BY MR. JUSTICE GRAY.

Four indictments, numbered in the record 33, 34, 35, and 36, on sections 5508 and 5509 of the Revised Statutes, (copied in the margin,¹) were returned by the grand jury at January term 1890, of the district court for the northern district of Texas, sitting at Dallas, in that district, against Eugene Logan, William Williams, Verna Wilkerson, and Clinton Rutherford, for conspiracy to injure and oppress citizens of the United States in the free exercise of a right secured to them by the constitution and laws of the United States, and for murder, committed in the prosecution of the conspiracy; and were forthwith transmitted to the circuit court.

Indictment 34 averred, in the first count, that on January 19, 1889, at Graham, in the county of Young, and that district, Charles Marlow, Epp Marlow, Alfred Marlow, George W. Marlow, William D. Burkhardt, and Louis Clift were citizens of the United States, and in the power, custody, and control of Edward W. Johnson, a deputy United States marshal for that district, by virtue of writs of commitment from a commissioner of the circuit court of the United States for the district, in default of bail, to answer to indictments for an offense against the laws of the United States, to-wit, larceny in the Indian country, within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States; and that, while said Johnson held them in his power, custody, and control, in pursuance of said writs, the defendants, 'together with divers other evil-disposed persons, whose names to the grand jurors aforesaid are unknown, did then and there combine, conspire, and confederate by and between themselves, with force and arms, to injure and oppress them, the said Charles Marlow, Epp Marlow, Alfred Marlow, George W. Marlow, William D. Burkhardt, and Louis Clift, then and there citizense of the United States of America, in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right, and because they were then and there exercising and enjoying said right, then and there secured to them' 'by the constitution and laws of the United States, to-wit, the right to then and there be protected by said deputy United States marshal from the assault of' the defendants and other evil-disposed persons, 'and the right then and there to be held in the power, custody, and control of said deputy United States marshal under and by virtue of said writs heretofore set forth, and the further right, while in said custody, to be secure in their persons from bodily harm and injury and assaults and cruelties until they' 'had been discharged by due process of the laws of the United States;' and that the defendants, in pursuance of such combination and conspiracy, and in the prosecution thereof, on January 19, 1889, and in the night-time, went upon the highway in disguise, and waylaid and assaulted the said prisoners, while in the power, custody, and control of said deputy United States marshal, with loaded shotguns, revolvers, and Winchester rifles, and, in pursuance and prosecution of the conspiracy, feloniously, willfully, and of their malice aforethought, and from a deliberate and premeditated design to effect his death, did with those weapons kill and murder Epp Marlow, then and there in the peace of the United States being (charging the murder in due technical form;) 'contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States of America.'

The other counts in this indictment were substantially similar, except that some of them alleged the prisoners to have been in the custody of Thomas Collier, sheriff and jailer of Young county, under the writs of commitment from the United States commissioner; or alleged Alfred Marlow to have been the person murdered; or charged one of the defendants as principal and the others as accessories in the murder.

Indictments 33 and 36 were substantially like 34. Indictment 35 added John Levell and Phlete A. Martin as defendants, and (besides counts like those in the other indictments, omitting, however, the charge of murder) contained counts alleging a conspiracy to obstruct the deputy-marshal and the jailer in the execution of the writs of commitment, and, in pursuance thereof, an attempt to take the prisoners from the jail on January 17th, and a murder of some of them on the highway on January 19, 1889.

Five other indictments had been returned by the grand jury in February and March, 1889, and transmitted to the circuit court, against Logan, Martin, and other persons, (some of whom were not the same as in the other four indictments,) containing charges, in various forms, like those in the added counts in indictment 35.

At October term, 1890, held at Graham, the following proceedings took place:

On October 21, 1890, the district attorney moved that the nine indictments be consolidated and be tried together, because they charged cognate and kindred crimes, and presented parts and phases of the same transaction. The defendants opposed the motion because the indictments set forth offenses of different grades, and were framed under different sections of the statutes, with different penalties and procedures. The motion was granted, and the indictments were all consolidated with No. 34, under the title "No. 34 consolidated;" and the defendants excepted.

On October 22, 1890, the defendants, 'excepting to the several indictments presented against them, and by order of this court consolidated, and now being prosecuted under case No. 34 on the docket of said court, charging said defendants with a conspiracy to injure and oppress Charles Marlow and others in the free exercise and enjoyment of rights secured to them by the constitution and laws of the United States, move the court to quash said indictments and dismiss this prosecution, for the following reasons:

'(1) The said indictments are found and presented by a grand jury at the January term of the United States district court for the northern district of Texas, holding session at Dallas; and the allegations of said indictments show that the offenses therein charged were committed, if at all, in the subdivision of said district offenses committed in which are cognizable alone at the term of the district and circuit court to be held at Graham in said Young county; therefore this court is without jurisdiction.

'(2) Said indictments charge these defendants with a conspiracy to injure and oppress Charles Marlow and others named in said indictments in the free exercise and enjoyment of their right secured to them by the constitution and laws of the United States, a right to be protected by a deputy marshal of the United States, in whose custody they were, under process of this court; and the said indictments are bad, because no such right as therein alleged is secured to said persons by the constitution and laws of the United States; and therefore this court has no jurisdiction.

'(3) Said indictments charge no offense against the laws of the United States, or within the jurisdiction of this court; but show upon their face, by the allegations thereof, that the offense committed, if any, was against the laws of the state of Texas, of which the courts of said state have exclusive jurisdiction.'

The court overruled the motion to quash the indictment, and the defendants excepted.

On October 30, 1890, the district attorney moved the court for an order to set aside the former order of consolidation, so far as to separate the five earlier indictments; to confirm the consolidation of indictments 33, 34, 35, and 36; to sever Levell and Martin from their co-defendants; and to order the consolidated case to stand for trial against Logan, Williams, Wilkerson, and Rutherford. The court made an order accordingly, except that as to Williams the case was continued on his application, and with the consent of the district attorney. To this order no exception was taken by the defendants.

Logan, Wilkerson, and Rutherford then severally pleaded 'not guilty,' and a trial was had, resulting, on November 22, 1890, in this verdict: 'We, the jury, find the defendant Clinton Rutherford not guilty. The jury cannot agree as to Eugene Logan and Verna Wilkerson.' The court approved the verdict, and ordered it to be recorded; and also ordered that Rutherford be discharged from the indictment, and that Logan and Wilkerson stand committed to the custody of the marshal until further order.

At February term, 1891, held at Graham, the court, on motion of the district attorney, ordered to be consolidated with 'No. 34 consolidated' an indictment, numbered 37, found by the grand jury in the district court at Graham on October 29, 1890, and forth with transmitted to the circuit court, charging Collier, Johnson, Levell, Marion Wallace, Samuel Waggoner, William Hollis, Richard Cook, and five others named, but not including Logan, with the same conspiracy, and, in pursuance thereof, with the attempt to kill on January 17th, and the murder on January 19th. No exception was taken to this order.

On motion of the district attorney, suggesting the deaths of Williams and Collier, the indictments were dismissed as to them.

The remaining defendants in indictment 37 'excepted to the several indictments' so consolidated, and made a motion to quash them on the second and third grounds stated in the former motion to quash. This motion was overruled, and these defendants excepted to the overruling of the motion, and then pleaded 'not guilty.'

Logan and Wilkerson filed a special plea that they had once been in jeopardy for the same offense, in this: that at October term, 1890, of the court they were tried upon the same indictment, and for the same murder and conspiracy, by a jury; 'that said jury were legally drawn, impaneled, and sworn, and, after hearing the evidence, argument of counsel, and charge of the court, retired to consider...