People ex rel. Kahn v. Meyering

• Decision Date: 10 June 1932
• Docket Number: No. 21183.,21183.
• Citation: 181 N.E. 300,348 Ill. 486
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. KAHN v. MEYERING, Sheriff.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

348 Ill. 486

181 N.E. 300

PEOPLE ex rel. KAHN

v.MEYERING, Sheriff.

No. 21183.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

April 23, 1932.

Rehearing Denied June 10, 1932.

Error to Criminal Court, Cook County; Philip L. Sullivan, Judge.

Petition by the People on the relation of Henry Kahn, for a writ of habeas corpus against William D. Meyering, Sheriff. To review the judgment remanding petitioner to the custody of the Sheriff, petitioner brings error.

Affirmed.Myer H. Gladstone, of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Oscar E. Carlstrom, Atty. Gen., John A. Swanson, State's Atty., of Chicago, and J. J. Neiger, of Springfield (Edward E. Wilson, Grenville Beardsley, and Euclid L. Taylor, all of Chicago, of counsel), for defendant in error.

DUNN, J.

Henry Kahn was arrested by the sheriff of Cook county on October 29, 1931, by virtue of a warrant issued by the Governor directed to any sheriff, coroner, or constable of any county in the state, commanding the arrest of John J. Hill and his production forthwith in open court, and giving him not less than twenty-four hours to obtain counsel and avail himself of the laws of this state for the security of personal liberty, and his delivery, unless discharged by the court, to the agent of the Governor of New York, to be taken back to the state from which he fled. The warrant recited that the Governor of the state of New York demanded of the Governor of Illinois the arrest and delivery of Hill as a fugitive from justice, and had produced a copy of an indictment, certified as authentic and duly authenticated by the Governor of New York, charging Hill with having committed on April 15, 1931, in the county of Sullivan, in the state of New York, the crime of grand larceny in the first degree, which the Governor of New York certified to be a crime under the laws of New York, and recited further that the Governor of Illinois is satisfied that Hill is a fugitive from justice and has fled from the state of New York and taken refuge in this state. Upon his arrest, Kahn filed in the criminal court of Cook county a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he was unlawfullyrestrained of his liberty by the sheriff of Cook county under the name of John J. Hill by virtue of the Governor's warrant, which charged him with grand larceny from Albert Holcomb committed in the state of New York on April 15, 1931; that he was not substantially charged with crime in the state of New York; that the requisition and papers were not in regular form; that he was not the same person described in the requisition and accompanying papers from New York; and that the requisition is not made in good faith but for some ulterior purpose. The writ was ordered to issue, the sheriff made his return, and, after a hearing, the court remanded the petitioner to the custody of the sheriff. The petitioner then sued out a writ of error.

The following is a copy of the indictment:

‘The People of the State of New York against John J. Hill and John Clark, Defendants.

‘The grand jury of the county of Sullivan and State of New York, by this indictment, accuse the defendants, John J. Hill and John Clark, of the crime of grand larceny in the first degree, contrary to sections 1290 and 1294 of the penal law of the State of New York.

‘Dated October 8th, 1931.’

Certain statutes of the state of New York and certain decisions of the courts of that state were also introduced in evidence.

Henry Kahn, the petitioner, testified: ‘My name is Henry Kahn. I live in Chicago. Was in the State of New York during the last year. I was selling S. W. Straus bonds. I had a transaction with Albert Holcomb in February or March of this year. I saw him at his home in Acidalia, New York. * * * Mr. Holcomb wrote a letter to J. B. Owen, 507 Fifth avenue. We sent out a prospective on Straus bonds, and Mr. Holcomb wrote a letter into the office requesting a salesman to call on him. I called on Mr. Holcomb and went over the S. W. Straus issues I had with me. A day previous to the day I was there I had an S. W. Straus current offering sheet with enumerations of some sixty to eighty first mortgage real estate gold bonds. I went over these bonds with Mr. Holcomb and showed him that under present conditions he could get a very good rate of interest at the purchase time. He bought bonds on the third largest hotel, the Park Central Hotel, located at Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh streets, a square block, and he bought Ambassador Hotel bonds at Atlantic City, New Jersey-a $16,500,000 issue. He also bought Fifty-ninth street and Madison avenue, which is the name of the building and name of the bond. He also bought from me a bond on a building at 229 West, or 230 some odd West, on Twenty-second street. He also purchased from me bonds on Fox Metropolitan Play House Theaters, consisting of 148 Fox houses, also New England Fox Theaters of New England, with some 68 theaters. The face value of these bonds is all $1000. The aggregate amount of the bonds I sold him was something over $30,000. Every one of the interest coupons were attached to those bonds up to date. Not a one of those bonds were in default at that time. He paid me for the bonds. * * * I never used the name of John J. Hill in any other transaction. The transaction I speak of is the only one I ever had in Sullivan county. * * * I am Henry Kahn. I used the name J. J. Hill. I never used the name of Alfred Kahn. I used the name of J. J. Hill because when I met Mr. Holcomb at his house he asked me a question-asked what nationality I was, I said, ‘Why do you ask?’ and he said he wondered if I were Jewish. He said he didn't want to have any dealings with a Jew, so I used the name of Hill.'

Louis C. King, a witness called for the defendant in error, testified that he was a nephew of Albert Holcomb, who lived in Acidalia, N. Y., and that he saw Kahn at Holcomb's home there. He came in and introduced himself as J. J. Hill. Afterward in a conversation Holcomb, at the time of the indictment, after the proceedings before the grand jury were over, called Kahn John J. Hill.

The plaintiff in error has assigned fourteen errors on the record, but they will all be disposed of by the consideration of assignments numbered 10, 11, and 12, that the court erred in finding the relator was substantially charged with a crime in the state of New York, in finding that the relator was a fugitive from justice from the state of New York, and in finding that the relator was the same person described in the Governor's warrant.

The Federal Constitution (article 4, § 2) requires that a person charged with crime in any state who shall flee from justice and be found in another state, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime. An act of Congress provides the regulations necessary to carry this provision into execution. 18 USCA § 662. The method of procedure is well understood. Whenever the executive authority of any state demands any person, as a fugitive from justice, of the executive authority of another state and produces a copy of an indictment found or affidavit made before a magistrate charging the person demanded with a crime certified as authentic by the Governor of the demanding state, it is the duty of the Governor of the state to which such person has fled to cause him to be arrested and delivered to the agent of the executive authority making such demand. Therefore, whenever such demand is made on the Governor of a state, it must be made to appear to him that the person demanded is substantially charged with a crime against the laws of the state from whose justice he is alleged to have fled, by an indictment or affidavit certified as authentic by the Governor of the demanding state, and that the person demanded is a fugitive from the justice of that state. Whenever an arrest has been made of a person charged to be a fugitive from the justice of another state, he is entitled to invoke the judgment of the courts either of the state or of the United States by the writ of habeas corpus upon the lawfulnessof his arrest and imprisonment. Roberts v. Reilly, 116 U. S. 80, 6 S. Ct. 291, 29 L. Ed. 544.

The first of the requirements which the Governor...