Martha Munsey v. Swain Clough
| Citation | 25 S.Ct. 282,196 U.S. 364,49 L.Ed. 515 |
| Decision Date | 30 January 1905 |
| Docket Number | No. 126,126 |
| Parties | MARTHA S. MUNSEY, Plff. in Err. , v. M. SWAIN CLOUGH, Sheriff of Merrimack County |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Mr. Edward A. Lane for plaintiff in error.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 365-367 intentionally omitted]
[367]
Messrs. Edwin G. Eastman and George A. Sanderson for defendant in error.
e Peckham helivered the opinion of the court:
This was a proceeding on habeas corpus in a state court of New Hampshire to obtain the discharge of the plaintiff in error from arrest under a warrant given by the governor of that state, directing the return of the plaintiff in error to the commonwealth of Massachusetts, as a fugitive from justice. Upon the hearing the state court refused to discharge the plaintiff in error, the order of refusal was affirmed by the supreme court, and she has brought the case here for review. On a former proceeding in supreme court, see 71 N. H. 594, 53 Atl. 1086.
The proceedings before the governor of New Hampshire to obtain the warrant of arrest were taken under § 5278 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, reenacting the statute approved February 12, 1793 (1 Stat. at L. 302, chap. 7, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3597), relating to the arrest of persons as fugitives from justice, under clause 2 of § 2 of article 4 of the Constitution of the United States.
The papers before the governor of New Hampshire consisted of a copy of an indictment of the plaintiff in error, found in Massachusetts on the second Monday of February, 1902; it contained three counts, and charged the plaintiff in error with uttering and publishing as true a certain forged instrument, purporting to be a will, well knowing the same to be forged. The first count alleged that the crime was committed on the 28th of February, 1895, at Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts; and it also alleged that since the commission of the offense the plaintiff had not been usually or publicly a resident in that commonwealth.
The second count averred the uttering, etc., to have been on the 17th day of May, in the year 1895, in the same place, and the indictment had the same averment as to the nonresidence of the plaintiff in error as contained in the first count.
The third count averred the uttering at the same place as that named in the other two counts, but laid the date as the 20th day of November, 1901. There was also before the governor of New Hampshire an application, dated the 26th of February, 1902, signed by George A. Sanderson, district attorney for the northern district of Middlesex, to the governor of Massachusetts, requesting a requisition from him upon the governor of New Hampshire for the extradition of the plaintiff in error, who, as stated in the application, stood charged by indictment with the crime of uttering forged wills, committed in the county of Middlesex (on the days stated in the indictment), and who, to avoid prosecution, had fled from the jurisdiction of the commonwealth, and was a fugitive from justice, and was within the jurisdiction of the state of New Hampshire. It was also stated in the application that the indictment was not found by the grand jury until the February sitting of the superior court in the year 1902. There was also before the governor of New Hampshire a copy of what purported to be an affidavit of one Whitney, the original of which was used before the governor of Massachusetts, to obtain the requisition. It is short, and is as follows:
Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
Middlesex.ss.:
I, Jophanus H. Whitney, of Medford, in the county of Middlesex and said commonwealth, on oath depose and say that Martha S. Munsey, who stands charged by indictment with the crime of uttering forged wills, as is more fully set forth in the papers hereto annexed, has fled from the limits of said commonwealth, and is a fugitive from justice. And I further depose that at the time of the commission of said crime she was in the state of Massachusetts, in the county of Middlesex of said commonwealth, and that at the same time and previous thereto she was a resident of Cambridge in the said county of Middlesex; that she fled from said commonwealth of Massachusetts on or about the fourth day of November, A. D. 1901; that she is not now within the limits of the commonwealth, but, as I have reason to believe, is now in Pittsfield, in the state of New Hampshire. The grounds of my knowledge are that I have interviewed her since the fourth of November last in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, where she was living with her husband during the last week January last.
Jophanus H. Whitney.
There was also a certificate of the district attorney for the northern district of Middlesex, that the offense charged against the plaintiff in error is a felony within that commonwealth, and that application for the arrest and return of the fugitive had not been sooner made because the indictment was not found by the grand jury until February, 1902.
The governor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts having given the requisition applied for, the papers above mentioned were presented to the governor of New Hampshire, and a request made that he should issue his warrant of arrest to take the plaintiff in error back to the commonwealth of Massachusetts, as a fugitive from justice, and for the purpose of being tried on the indictment referred to. The counsel for the plaintiff in error appeared before the governor, and stated they desired a hearing before him before the warrant of arrest should be granted. This hearing was refused, and the governor then granted the warrant for the arrest and return of the plaintiff in error to the commonwealth of Massachusetts as a fugitive from justice. In that warrant it was provided that the plaintiff in error should be afforded an opportunity to sue out a writ of habeas corpus before being delivered over to the authorities of Massachusetts. She availed herself of that right and sued out such writ, and upon its return the plaintiff in error made several objections to the execution of the governor's warrant, and alleged the insufficiency of the papers to authorize the granting of the same. At the close of the hearing the counsel for plaintiff in error moved that she be discharged for the reasons stated in the motion; the motion was denied, subject to the objection and exception of the plaintiff in error. The record then shows the following:
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