State of Tennessee v. Jackson

• Decision Date: 01 July 1888
• Citation: 36 F. 258
• Parties: STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JACKSON.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee

36 F. 258

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JACKSON.

United States District Court, E.D. Tennessee.

July, 1888

Russell Titlow & Daniel, for relator.

W. L Eakin, for the State.

KEY, J.

The facts of this case are as follows: The defendant resided in the city of Chicago, Ill. He sold the prosecutor a horse. The purchaser of the horse resided in Chattanooga, Tenn. The purchaser saw an advertisement in a Chicago newspaper offering the horse for sale, and the trade was completed by correspondence; Jackson remaining all the while in Chicago and the purchaser in Chattanooga. The horse was shipped by rail to the purchaser, and the price remitted by mail to Jackson. After the arrival of the horse at his destination and a trial of his abilities and qualities, the purchaser claimed that the horse was worthless, and that the price paid had been obtained by false and fraudulent pretenses; and he sued out a warrant against Jackson, which was issued by a justice of the peace in Chattanooga. The matter was placed in the hands of a detective, who made affidavit that Jackson had been charged with committing the crime of obtaining money by false pretenses against the state of Tennessee, and that he had fled from the state of Tennessee, and was in the state of Illinois; and the governor of Tennessee made requisition on the governor of Illinois for Jackson, under the provisions of section 5278, Rev. St. U.S. Armed with these papers, the detective went to Illinois, obtained a warrant from the governor of that state for the arrest of Jackson, and arrested him, and hurried him off to Tennessee, had him tried before a justice of the peace and committed to jail. Thereupon Jackson filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, upon the ground that his arrest and confinement are unauthorized.

It is insisted for the prosecution that the mailing of the letter containing the money in the post office here, addressed to Jackson at Chicago, was, in law, a delivery to Jackson, and that, in consequence, this state has jurisdiction, and having such jurisdiction, and the defendant being here no matter how, the authorities of the state have the right to retain him in custody for trial. Section 5278 provides that 'whenever the executive authority of any state or territory demands any person as a fugitive from justice of the executive authority of any state or territory to which such person has fled, and produces a copy of an indictment found, or...