Ornelas v. Ruiz

• Citation: 16 S.Ct. 689,161 U.S. 502,40 L.Ed. 787
• Decision Date: 16 March 1896
• Docket Number: No. 622,622
• Parties: ORNELAS, Consul, v. RUIZ et al
• Court: United States Supreme Court

161 U.S. 502

16 S.Ct. 689

40 L.Ed. 787

ORNELAS, Consul,

v RUIZ et al.

No. 622.

March 16, 1896.

Habeas corpus proceedings by Inez Ruiz, Jesus Guerra, and Juan Duque. From a judgment discharging said petitioners, Plutarco Ornelas appeals. Reversed.

On complaints made by Plutarco Ornelas, consul of the republic of Nexico, charging Juan Duque, Inez Ruiz, and Jesus Guerra with the commission of murder, arson, robbery, and kidnapping, at the village of San Ygnacio, in the state of Tamaulipas, republic of Mexico, on December 10, 1892; that they were fugitives from justice of the state of Tamaulipas and the republic of Mexico, and had fled into the jurisdiction of the United States for the purpose of seeking an asylum; and that the alleged crimes were enumerated and embraced in the treaty of extradition then in force between the United States and the republic of Mexico,—warrants were issued by L. F. Price, commissioner of the circuit court of the United States for the Western district of Texas, duly authorized, for their apprehension, on which they were arrested and brought before the commissioner to answer the premises, and to be dealt with according to law and the provisions of the treaty. The cases were heard, and the commis- sioner found that the evidence was sufficient, in law, to justify their commitment on such charges, and that they should be placed in custody to await the order of the president of the United States in the premises.

Thereupon Ruiz, Guerra, and Duque applied to the district court of the United States for the Western district of Texas for writs of habeas corpus, alleging that they were unlawfully restrained of their liberty by the United States marshal for that district, and praying that they be released.

The writs were issued, and the marshal made his return, showing that he held petitioners by virtue of warrants issued by the United States commissioner, on the application of the Mexican government for their extradition on the aforesaid charges. With the writs of habeas corpus were issued writs of certiorari directing the commissioner to send up the original papers and a transcript of the testimony on which the prisoners were committed. This was done, and, on consideration of the cases, the district court held, on the evidence, that the offenses with which petitioners were charged were purely political offenses, for the commission of which petitioners were not extraditable, and entered a final order discharging petitioners from the custody of the marshal, on giving bond for their appearance to answer the judgment on appeal. From this final order, the consul of the republic of Mexico prayed an appeal to this court

The following are articles of the extradition treaty between the United States and the republic of Mexico, proclaimed June 20, 1862:

'Article 1. It is agreed that the contracting parties shall, on requisitions made in their name, through the medium of their respective diplomatic agents, deliver up to justice persons who, being accused of the crimes enumerated in article third of the present treaty, committed within the jurisdiction of the requiring party, shall seek an asylum, or shall be found within the territories of the other: Provided, that this shall be done only when the fact of the commission of the crime shall be so established as that the laws of the country in which the fugitive or the person so accused shall be found would justify his or her apprehension and commitment for trial if the crime had been there committed.

'Art. 2. In the case of crimes committed in the frontier states or territories of the two be suspended, through the chief military officer through their respective diplomatic agents, or through the chief civil authority of said states or territories, or through such chief civil or judicial authority of the districts or counties bordering on the frontier as may for this purpose by duly authorized by the said chief civil authority of the said frontier states or territories, or when, from any cause, the civil authority of such state or territory shall be suspended, through the chief militaryofficer in command of such state or territory.

'Art. 3. Persons shall be so delivered up who shall be charged, according to the provisions of this treaty, with any of the following crimes, whether as principals, accessories, or accomplices, to wit: Murder (including assassination, parricide, infanticide, and poisoning), assault with intent to commit murder, mutilation, piracy, arson, rape, kidnapping, defining the same to be the taking and carrying away of a free person by force or deception; forgery, including the forging or making, or knowingly passing or putting in circulation counterfeit coin or bank notes, or other paper current as money, with intent to defraud any person or persons; the introduction or making of instruments for the fabrication of counterfeit coin or bank notes, or other paper current as money; embezzlement of public moneys, robbery, defining the same to be the felonious and forcible taking from the person of another of goods or money to any value, by violence or putting him in fear; burglary, defining the same to be breaking and entering into the house of another with intent to commit felony; and the crime of larceny, of cattle, or other goods and chattels, of the value of twenty-five dollars or more, when the same is committed within the frontier states or territories of the contracting parties.

'Art. 4. On the part of each country the surrender of fugitives from justice shall be made only by the authority of the executive thereof, except in the case of crimes committed within the limits of the frontier states or territories, in which latter case the surrender may be made by the chief civil authority thereof, or such chief civil or judicial authority of the district or counties bordering on the frontier as may for this purpose be duly authorized by the said chief civil authority of the said frontier states or territories, or, if, from any cause, the civil authority of such state or territory shall be suspended, then such surrender may be made by the chief military officer in command of such state or territory.

'Art. 5. All expenses whatever of detention and delivery effected in virtue of the preceding provisions shall be borne and defrayed by the government or authority of the frontier state or territory in whose name the requisition shall have been made.

'Art. 6. The provisions of the present treaty shall not be applied in any manner to any crime or offense of a purely political character, nor shall it embrace the return of fugitive slaves, nor the delivery of criminals who, when the offense was committed, shall have been held in the place where the offense was co mitted in the condition of slaves, the same being expressly forbidden by the constitution of Mexico; nor shall the provisions of the present treaty be applied in any manner to the crimes enumerated in the third article committed anterior to the date of the exchange of the ratifications hereof.

'Neither of the contracting parties shall be bound to deliver up its own citizens under the stipulations of this treaty.'

J. H. McLeary, for appellant.

T. J. McMinn, for appellees.

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

The republic of Mexico applied for the extradition of these petitioners by complaints made under oath by its consul at San Antonio, Bexar county, Tex., under section 5270 of the Revised Statutes. The official character of this officer must be taken as sufficient evidence of his authority, and, as the government he represented was the real party interested in resisting the discharge, the appeal was properly prosecuted by him on its behalf. Wildenhus' Case, 120 U. S. 1, 7 Sup. Ct. 385. As the construction of the treaty was drawn in question, the appeal was taken directly to this court, and the district court rightly required petitioners, under rule 34, to enter into recognizance for their appearance to answer its judgment.

The legislative provisions on the subject of extradition are to be found in ...