Silas Pickett v. United States

• Decision Date: 21 February 1910
• Docket Number: No. 270,270
• Citation: 216 U.S. 456,30 S.Ct. 265,54 L.Ed. 566
• Parties: SILAS PICKETT, Plff. in Err., v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

216 U.S. 456

30 S.Ct. 265

54 L.Ed. 566

SILAS PICKETT, Plff. in Err.,

v UNITED STATES.

No. 270.

Submitted January 3, 1910.

Decided February 21, 1910.

Assistant Attorney General Harr for defendant

No appearance for plaintiff in error.

Assistant Attorney General Harr for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Lurton delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a writ of error to a judgment of the circuit court of the United States for the western district of Oklahoma, upon a Conviction in a capital case, sued out by the plaintiff in error, the defendant below, by authority of the 5th section of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. at L. 826, 827, chap. 517, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 549).

The plaintiff in error, Silas Pickett, a negro, was indicted in the district court of the United States for the western district of Oklahoma for the murder of a negro known as Walter the Kid, within the limits of the Osage Indian Reservation. The indictment was remitted to the circuit court for the same district, as required by § 1039, Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 723). This murder was charged as having been committed on October 14, 1907. The state of Oklahoma was admitted to the Union on November 16, 1907. The offense was, therefore, committed before its admission as a state, and for that offense the plaintiff in error was, after such admission, both indicted and convicted in a court of the United States for the western district of Oklahoma,—the Osage Indian Reservation being within that district. The jurisdiction of the court was challenged by motion to quash, by demurrer, and by motion in arrest of judgment. Of course, if the offense was not one against the United States, or not committed within the territorial jurisdiction of the district court for the western district of Oklahoma, the indictment would be bad, and the court which tried and convicted the plaintiff in error, without jurisdiction. But the crime charged in this indictment was one against the United States. By § 5339 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3627), as amended by the act of January 15, 1897 (29 Stat. at L. 487, chap. 29, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3620), the crime of murder, when committed within any 'place or district or country under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States,' is defined and the punishment provided. This general law was, by § 2145, Rev. Stat., extended 'to the Indian country,' when not within one or the other of the exceptions of § 2146.

The averments of the indictment make it plain that the crime charged was committed within a 'place or district' at that time exclusively under the jurisdiction of the United States, being Indian country, not within any state. As it also averred that the plaintiff in error was a negro, and not an Indian, and the person slain a negro, and not an Indian, the exceptions made by § 2145, Rev. Stat., do not apply.

The crime was charged to have been committed on October 14, 1907,—a date subsequent to the enabling act of June 16, 1906 [34 Stat. at L. 267, chap. 3335], under which, on November 20, 1907, Oklahoma was admitted to the Union.

The jurisdiction of the district court of the United States, exercised in respect to the indictment and trial of this plaintiff in error, depends upon the provisions of that enabling act. Such a crime might have been prosecuted in the territorial court for the proper district of the territory, sitting as a court of the United States, and administering the law of the United States in the exercise of its jurisdiction conferred by Congress. Ex parte Crow Dog (Ex parte Kang-Gi-Shun-Ca) 109 U. S. 556, 27 L. ed. 1030, 3 Sup. Ct Rep. 396; Brown v. United States, 77 C. C. A. 173, 146 Fed. 975. but the function and jurisdiction of such territorial courts would naturally terminate upon the territory becoming a state, and therefore render necessary some provision for the transfer of pending business and jurisdiction in respect of local matters to state courts, and of civil and criminal business and jurisdiction arising under the laws of the United States to courts of the United States when they should come into existence. Forsyth v. United States, 9 How. 571, 576, 13 L. ed. 262, 264.

It was therefore altogether competent for Congress to provide, as it did in the 14th section of this enabling act, for the transfer of jurisdiction in respect of all crimes against the United States—for the act must be read as applying to crimes under the general criminal law of the United States,—to the Federal Courts provided by the same act. If this could not be done, the change from a territorial condition to that of a state would operate as an automatic amnesty for crimes committed against the general law of the United States within districts exclusively under its jurisdiction, and not within the jurisdiction of any state, for the courts of the state could not be empowered to prosecute crimes against the laws of another sovereignty. Martin v. Hunter, 1 Wheat. 304, 337, 4 L. ed. 97, 105. The power to punish was not lost if the crime was one of the character described, and the enabling act might well provide that such crime, committed either before or a after the admission of the state, might be prosecuted in the courts of the United States when established within the new state. The subject is elaborately considered and decided by District Judge Marshall in United States v. Baum, 74 Fed. 43.

Section 13 of the enabling act² referred to provides 'that the state, when admitted [italics ours], should be divided into two judicial districts,' for the appointment of a district judge, clerk, and marshal for each, and that the state should be attached to the eighth judicial...