Todd v. United States

Decision Date20 May 1895
Docket NumberNo. 822,822
Citation39 L.Ed. 982,158 U.S. 278,15 S.Ct. 889
PartiesTODD et al. v. UNITED STATES
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Todd and others were indicted under section 5406 of the Revised Statutes, reading as follows:

'If two or more persons in any state or territory conspire to deter, by force, intimidation, or threat,a ny party or witness in any court of the United States from attending such court, or from testifying to any matter pending therein, freely, fully, and truth-fully, or to injure such party or witness in his person or property, on account of his having so attended or testified, * * * each of such persons shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment, with or without hard labor, not less than six months nor more than six years, or by both such fine and imprisonment.'

The indictment stated:

'That heretofore,' etc., 'J. W. Todd, alias Watson Todd, George W. Kelley [etc., naming plaintiffs in error and others], whose Christian names and surnames, respectively, are to this grand jury otherwise unknown, unlawfully, corruptly, forcibly, and feloniously did combine, conspire, and confederate together, by force and intimidation and threats, to injure Wiley Pruett and William Pruett, who had theretofore been witnesses and testified against Joe Arnold, Milton Farmer, and George Kelley upon a charge of endeavoring to influence, intimidate, and impede witnesses in a court of the United States, in violation of the criminal laws of the United States, tried preliminarily by and before Robert Charlson, acting as a commissioner of the circuit court of the United States for said district, in their person and property on account of the said witnesses above named having testified in said cause in the said court as aforesaid, and in pursuance of said conspiracy, and to effect the object thereof, the said defendants, and each of them, did assault, beat, bruise, and wound with weapons the said Wiley Pruett and William Pruett, contrary,' etc.

A demurrer to the indictment was interposed and overruled, and, a nolle prosequi having been entered as to certain defendants, Todd, Roberts, and Mitchell, and 10 others, were tried and convicted, and, a motion in arrest of judgment having been made and denied, were each sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for four years, and payment of $500 and costs.

Thereupon they sued out a writ of error from this court.

Mr. Justice Harlan dissenting.

John C. Fay, for plaintiffs in error.

Sol. Gen. Conrad and Asst. Atty. Gen. Whitney, for the United States.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 279-282 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice BREWER, after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

After this case had been submitted to us on certain alleged errors, we became impressed with the fact that a more serious question existed than any that had been discussed, and that is whether a preliminary examination before a commissioner is a proceeding 'in any court of the United States,' within the meaning of section 5406. The attention of counsel was called to this, and briefs have been furnished on each side. With the assistance furnished by these briefs we have carefully examined the question, and are of the opinion that it must be answered in the negative.

It is axiomatic that statutes creating and defining crimes cannot be extended by intendment, and that no act, however wrongful, can be punished under such a statute unless clearly within its terms. 'There can be no constructive offenses, and, before a man can be punished, his case must be plainly and unmistakably within the statute.' U. S. v. Lacher, 134 U. S. 624, 10 Sup. Ct. 625; End. Interp. St. (2d Ed.) § 329; Pom. Sedg. St. Const. Law, 280.

That a commissioner is not a judge of a court of the United States, within the constitutional sense, is apparent and conceded. He is simply an officer of the circuit court, appointed and removable by that court. Rev. St. § 627. Ex parte Hennen, 13 Pet. 230; U. S. v. Allred, 155 U. S. 591, 15 Sup. Ct. 231. A preliminary examination before him is not a proceeding in the court which appointed him, or in any court of the United States. Such an examination may be had not merely before a commissioner, but also before any justice or judge of the United States, or before any chancellor, judge of a state court, mayr of a city, justice of the peace, or other state magistrate. Rev. St. § 1014. And it cannot be pretended that one of those state officers, while conducting a preliminary investigation, is...

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