State of Maryland v. Soper
| Citation | 70 L.Ed. 449,270 U.S. 9,46 S.Ct. 185 |
| Decision Date | 01 February 1926 |
| Docket Number | O,No. 23,23 |
| Parties | STATE OF MARYLAND v. SOPER, District Judge, et al. riginal |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
[Syllabus from pages 9-11 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Herbert Levy and Thomas H. Robinson, both of Baltimore, Md., for the State of Maryland.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 11-16 intentionally omitted] Mr. Assistant Attorney General Donovan, for respondents.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 16-20 intentionally omitted] Mr. Chief Justice TAFT delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a petition by the state of Maryland for a writ of mandamus against Morris A. Soper, the United States District Judge for Maryland, directing him to remand an indictment for murder, found in the circuit court for Harford county, Maryland, against four prohibition agents and their chauffeur, which was removed to the United States District Court under section 33 of the Judicial Code, as amended August 23, 1916, 39 Stat. 532, c. 399 (Comp. St. § 1015). The text of the amended section, in so far as it is material here, is set out in the margin.1
The indictment, found February 10, 1925, charged as follows:
'The jurors of the state of Maryland, for the body of Harford county, do on their oath present that Wilton L. Stevens, John M. Barton, Robert D. Ford, E. Franklin Ely, and William Trabing, late of Harford county aforesaid, on the nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and twenty-four, at the county aforesaid, feloniously, willfully, and of their deliberately premeditated malice aforethought did kill and murder Lawrence Wenger, contrary to the form of the act of assembly in such case made and provided, and against the peace, government, and dignity of the state.'
The defendants were arrested, and on February 11, 1925, filed a petition in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, in which they averred that they were federal prohibition agents, except Trabing, who was their chauffeur, and was assisting them and was acting under the authority of the prohibition director, and that the act or acts done by Trabing, as chauffeur and helper, as well as by the other defendants, at the time when they were alleged to have been guilty of the murder of Lawrence Wenger, which charge they all denied, were done in the discharge of their official duties as prohibition agents, and as officers of the internal revenue in the discharge of their duty. Thereupon an order of removal, together with a writ of certiorari, and habeas corpus cum causa, pursuant to section 33, was made by Judge Soper of the District Court. On March 12th, the state of Maryland, by its Attorney General and the state's attorney for Harford county, appeared specially and made a motion to quash the writ and rescind the order. On the 17th of May, the cause came on for hearing on the motion to quash, and, the defendants having applied for leave of court to amend the petition, it was granted, and an amended petition was filed. After setting out the indictment, the third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs of the amended petition were as follows:
'3. That the acts alleged to have been done by the petitioner William Trabing are alleged to have been done at a time when he was engaged in the discharge of his duties while acting under and by authority of Federal Prohibition Director Edmund Budnitz and Federal Prohibition Officers Robert D. Ford, John M. Barton, Wilson L. Stevens, and E. Franklin Ely, as aforesaid, while the said officers were engaged in the discharge of their official duties as prohibition officers in making and attempting to make an investigation concerning a violation of the National Prohibition Act and other internal revenue laws and while reporting and preparing to report the results of said investigation and in protecting himself and the said officers of the internal revenue in the discharge of his and their duty as set out in paragraph 4 below.
'4. That the acts alleged to have been done by the petitioners Robert D. Ford, John M. Barton, Wilton L. Stevens, and E. Franklin Ely are alleged to have been done at a time when they were engaged in the discharge of their official duties as federal prohibition officers, and in making and attempting to make an investigation concerning a violation of the National Prohibition Act and other internal revenue laws, and in reporting the results of said investigation, and in protecting themselves in the discharge of their duty as follows:
'That on November nineteenth, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, your petitioners were directed by Maryland Federal Prohibition Director Edmund Budnitz to investigate the alleged unlawful distillation of intoxicating liquor on a farm known as the Harry Carver farm situated approximately three miles from the village of Madonna, about twelve miles northwest from Bel Air, Maryland, which said property was then unoccupied. Your petitioners reached the said farm premises shortly after midday on November nineteenth, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, and discovered there in a secluded wooded valley and swamp materials for an illicit distilling operation, to wit, nine empty mash boxes, three fifty-gallon metal drums, a fifty-gallon condenser, about one thousand pounds of rye meal in bags, a lighted fire, and men's working clothes. Your petitioners thereupon concealed themselves in woods and shrubbery nearby the still site and shortly thereafter became aware of the approach of a number of men bringing with them a still. Your petitioners thereupon made their presence known to the men who were approaching, and the men immediately dropped the still and fled; and though your petitioners pursued them across the fields, no one of the fleeing men was overtaken or arrested. Thereupon your petitioners returned to the still site, destroyed the materials before mentioned which constituted the unlawful distilling plant, and started to return to their car, which had been left some distance from the still site, for the purpose of returning to Baltimore to report to the office of the Maryland federal prohibition director concerning the results of their investigation, when they discovered a man, whom they afterwards learned to be one Lawrence Wenger, mortally wounded and lying beside the path along which they were walking, some 400 or 500 yards from the still site and in a direction opposite to that from which the unknown men had approached and towards which they fled. Whereupon your petitioners carried the wounded man to their car and took him to Jarrettsville, Maryland, for medical treatment, but, finding none there available, proceeded with all speed to Bel Air, where they sought out in turn Drs. Richardson, Sappington and Archer, without success, and finally placed the said Lawrence Wenger in charge of Dr. Van Bibber, who pronounced him dead. Your petitioners then, acting under the advice of the said Dr. Van Bibber, removed the body of the said Lawrence Wenger to the undertaking establishment of Dean & Foster in Bel Air. Your petitioners then proceeded to the state's attorney's office in Bel Air and related the facts aforesaid to the state's attorney, whereupon, on being informed by them that your petitioners Robert D. Ford, John M. Barton, Wilton L. Stevens, and E. Franklin Ely were prohibition officers, and that your petitioner William Trabing was employed by the federal prohibition director as their chauffeur, they were placed under arrest by the sheriff of Harford county at the instance of the state's attorney and were confined in the Harford county jail until the following morning, Novem- ber twentieth, nineteen hundred and twenty-four. On the morning of November twentieth, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, your petitioners were taken by the sheriff and state's attorney, in company with a number of men who that afternoon served upon the coroner's jury mentioned in the indictment, and in company with two Baltimore city police headquarters detectives, to the scene of their investigation of the previous day. They related the facts concerning their investigation of the unlawful distilling operation and their finding of the said Lawrence Wenger on November nineteenth, and then and there went over the scene of the said occurrences, relating freely and without reservation the events which took place November nineteenth, in accordance with their duty as investigating and reporting officers of the federal government and in compliance with their duties as federal prohibition officers. Likewise on the afternoon of November twentieth your petitioners were called before the coroner's inquest heretofore described in the indictment, and freely and without reservation in accordance with their duty as investigating and reporting officers of the federal government and acting under the direction of the Maryland federal prohibition director, related the facts aforementioned. And thereupon they were again placed in the Harford county jail and held for action of the Harford county grand jury until their release on bail upon the evening of November twentieth, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, at the instance of the United States attorney for the district of Maryland acting on their behalf.
'5. That the said criminal prosecution was commenced in the manner following:
'A presentment against your petitioners was returned in the circuit court for Harford county, February ninth, nineteen hundred and twenty-five, following which presentment the state of Maryland, by the state's attorney for Harford county, prosecuted and sued forth out of the circuit court for Harford county a writ of the state of Maryland of capias ad respondendum against your petitioners, to which there was no return by the sheriff of Harford county, whereupon the indictment heretofore set forth was returned.
'The said indictment is now pending in the circuit court for Harford county and is a criminal prosecution on account...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Krangel v. Crown, Civ. No. 91-0210-R(P).
... ... Plaintiffs then moved to remand the case to state court ... In its Order of December 9, 1991, this court rejected defendants' ... its own laws and in violation of its own peace and dignity" is a delicate issue (citing Maryland v. Soper (No. 1), 270 U.S. 9, 29, 46 S.Ct. 185, 189, 70 L.Ed. 449 (1926))). Further, as the court ... ...
-
Little v. Purdue Pharma, L.P.
... ... As a result, they sought relief in state court on several grounds, contending that Defendants engaged in "wrongful conduct and unlawful ... Maryland v. Soper, 270 U.S. 9, 33, 46 S.Ct. 185, 70 L.Ed. 449 (1926). This particular removal provision ... ...
-
Alsup v. 3-Day Blinds, Inc.
... ... Shortly after this action was filed in state court on February 17, 2005, it was timely removed to this Court on April 20, 2005, by Defendant ... Davis, 100 U.S. 257, 263, 10 Otto 257, 25 L.Ed. 648 (1880)). See also Maryland v. Soper, 270 U.S. 9, 32, 46 S.Ct. 185, 70 L.Ed. 449 (1926) ("The constitutional validity of the ... ...
-
Chandler v. Judicial Council of Tenth Circuit of United States
...S.Ct. 938, 941, 87 L.Ed. 1185, nor one where appellate review will be defeated if a writ does not issue, cf. Maryland v. Soper, 270 U.S. 9, 29—30, 46 S.Ct. 185, 189, 70 L.Ed. 449. Here the most that could be claimed is that the district courts have erred in ruling on matters within their ju......
-
Pronouncements of the U.s. Supreme Court Relating to the Criminal Law Field: 1980-1981
...appeals only by the federal prosecutors when Congress has not expressly granted authority. (Emphasis added.) In Maryland v. Soper, 270 U.S. 9 (1926), in "mere dictum," the Court stated that once a criminal action is removed to federal court a judgment of acquittal in that court is final. Th......
-
A QUALIFIED DEFENSE OF QUALIFIED IMMUNITY.
...Id. at 262 (emphasis added). (105) Screws v. United States, 325 U.S. 91, 145 (1945) (Roberts, J., dissenting). (106) Maryland v. Soper, 270 U.S. 9, 34 (107) See, e.g., Winter, supra note 95, at 361, 383. (108) JOHN C. JEFFRIES, JR. ET AL., CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIONS: ENFORCING THE CONSTITUTION 9 ......