Rakes v. United States

• Decision Date: 18 January 1909
• Docket Number: No. 257,257
• Citation: 29 S.Ct. 244,212 U.S. 55,53 L.Ed. 401
• Parties: W. E. RAKES, Plff. in Err., v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

212 U.S. 55

29 S.Ct. 244

53 L.Ed. 401

W. E. RAKES, Plff. in Err.,

v UNITED STATES.

No. 257.

Argued January 4, 1909.

Decided January 18, 1909.

Mr. Waller R. Staples for plaintiff in error.

Assistant Attorney General Fowler for defendant in error.

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a writ of error issued directly from this court to the district court of the United States for the western district of Virginia under § 5 of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. at L. 827, chap. 517), as amended by the act of January 20, 1897 (29 Stat. at. L. 492, chap. 68 U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 549), and cannot be maintained unless this was a case of 'conviction of a capital crime,' or a case involving 'the construction or application of the Constitution of the United States.' or a case in which 'the constitutionality of any law of the United States is drawn in question.'

Plaintiff in error was indicted under §§ 5508 and 5509 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3712), for conspiracy, and for killing one Ann Hall in carrying out said conspiracy, and was found guilty of the conspiracy and of murder in the second degree, the jury fixing the punishment 'for said last-mentioned offense at imprisonment in the penitentiary for fifteen (15) years.' Judgment was rendered against him of imprisonment in the United States penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia, for a period of fifteen years and one day, commencing on the day of his committal to the penitentiary, and fined $100.

By § 5508 of the Revised Statutes it is made an offense against the United States for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, the punishment prescribed being a fine of not more than $5,000, imprisonment not more than ten years, and ineligibility to any office or place of honor, profit, or trust created by the Constitution or laws of the United States. And by § 5509 it is provided that if, in committing the above offense, any other felony or misdemeanor be committed, the offender shall suffer such punishment as is attached to such felony or misdemeanor by the laws of the state in which the offense is committed.

Section 3664 of the Code of Virginia enacts that 'murder of the second degree shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary not less than five nor more than eighteen years.'

Class 3 of § 5 gives the writ directly in 'cases of conviction of a capital crime.' and this case does not fall within it, because under the verdict, capital punishment could not be inflicted. The jurisdiction of this court, in this regard, does not depend upon the crime charged in the indictment, and it is clear that, as the accused was found guilty of murder in the second degree, for which the sentence of death could not be imposed, he was not convicted of a capital offense.

In Fitzpatrick v. United States, 178 U. S. 304, 44 L. ed. 1078, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 944, Fitzpatrick was indicted for murder in the first degree, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty 'without capital punishment,' as permitted by the statute. The United States insisted that this was not 'conviction of a capital crime,' but Mr. Justice Brown, speaking for the court, said that the qualification 'does not make the crime of murder anything less than a capital offense...