Quinlan v. United States
| Decision Date | 05 December 1927 |
| Docket Number | No. 5164.,5164. |
| Parties | QUINLAN et al. v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
E. W. Maynard and Early W. Butler, both of Macon, Ga., for plaintiffs in error.
B. S. Deaver, U. S. Atty., and Scott Russell, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Macon, Ga.
Before WALKER, BRYAN, and FOSTER, Circuit Judges.
The plaintiffs in error were convicted on six counts of an indictment filed in the District Court for the Middle District of Georgia on April 4, 1927. The first count charged that the accused, "on or about the 1st day of January, 1925, in the county of Bibb, state of Georgia, and within the jurisdiction of this court, did willfully, knowingly, and unlawfully conspire and agree together and with each other to commit an offense against the United States, to wit, the offense of violating the National Prohibition Act, in that said defendants did willfully, knowingly, and unlawfully conspire and agree together and with each other that they would unlawfully have and possess whisky, an intoxicating liquor, for the purpose of being sold and bartered in violation of the National Prohibition Act, and that they would unlawfully sell whisky, an intoxicating liquor, in violation of the National Prohibition Act, and that they would unlawfully maintain a building, to wit, a brick garage, at a place known as the Broadway Garage, on Broadway, near Poplar street, in the city of Macon, Georgia, where whisky, an intoxicating liquor, would be unlawfully kept for the purpose of being sold and bartered, and unlawfully sold and bartered, in violation of section 21 of the National Prohibition Act contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States."
The stated overt acts were alleged to have been done on or about stated dates in the months of February and May, 1925. The second count charged unlawful possession of intoxicating liquor for the purpose of being sold or bartered "on or about the 1st day of May, 1925," in said county of Bibb. The third, fourth, and fifth counts charged unlawful sales of whisky in the same county on or about stated dates in March, April, and May, 1925. A demurrer to the indictment was overruled. Testimony introduced in the trial to support the charges contained in the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth counts of the indictment related to occurrences in the year 1925, before the creation of the Middle district of Georgia by the Act of May 28, 1926 (28 USCA § 150). After their conviction the accused filed a motion in arrest of judgment and a motion to set aside the judgment. Those motions were overruled.
It appears from the record that the accused were convicted in the District Court for the Middle District of Georgia of offenses committed before the creation of that district in territory (Bibb county) which was included therein, which territory, prior to the creation of that district, was included in the Southern district of Georgia. For the plaintiffs in error it is contended that such convictions were invalid, because violative of the part of the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution which provides: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law," and because violative of a provision contained in section 59 of the Judicial Code (28 USCA 121).
The above-quoted provisions of the Sixth Amendment added to the requirement of the second section of article 3 of the Constitution, in respect to crimes committed in the states, that the trial by jury should be had in the state where the crime was committed, the further guaranty, in respect to the place of trial, that the district should have been previously ascertained by law. That provision contains no requirement as to the court in which the accused is to be tried, or as to the district in which the charged crime was committed remaining in existence until the time of the trial, or as it was when the crime was committed. That provision is consistent with the accused being tried by a court which was created after the commission of the crime, and with the place of the commission of the crime being at the time of the trial of the accused in a district having territorial boundaries different from those of the district wherein the crime was committed. The requirement of that provision is complied with if, before the crime was committed, the district in which it was committed was ascertained by law, and the trial is a speedy and public one by an impartial jury of any part of that district. Cook v. United States, 138 U. S. 157, 11 S. Ct. 268, 34 L. Ed. 906; Gut v. State, 9 Wall. 35, 19 L. Ed. 573; Clement v. United States (C. C. A.) 149 F. 305. The record does not show any violation of the constitutional provision which was invoked.
Section 59 of the Judicial Code reads as follows:
It appears from the language of that section that, so far as it deals with the situation created by the establishment of a new...
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United States v. Gruberg, 79 Crim. 447 (WCC).
...for transfer, see Mizell v. Vickrey, 36 F.2d 327 (10th Cir. 1929); Briggs v. White, 32 F.2d 108 (8th Cir. 1929); cf. Quinlan v. United States, 22 F.2d 95, 98 (5th Cir. 1927), cert. denied, 276 U.S. 627, 48 S.Ct. 321, 72 L.Ed. 739 (1928) (decided prior to Lewis). While subsequent cases have ......
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