United States of America v. John Shipp
| Decision Date | 24 December 1906 |
| Docket Number | O,No. 12,12 |
| Citation | 27 S.Ct. 165,8 Ann.Cas. 265,51 L.Ed. 319,203 U.S. 563 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. JOHN F. SHIPP et al. riginal |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Solicitor General Hoyt and Attorney General Moody for complainant.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 567-568 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Judson Harmon, Lewis Shepherd, G. W. Chamlee, Robert B. Cooke, Martin A. Fleming, T. P. Shepherd, Robert Pritchard, and Clift & Cooke for defendants.
[Argument of Counsel from page 568-571 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:
This is an information charging a contempt of this court, and is to the following effect. On February 11, 1906, one Johnson, a colored man, was convicted of rape upon a white woman, in a criminal court of Hamilton county, in the state of Tennessee, and was sentenced to death. On March 3 he presented a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the United States circuit court, setting up, among other things, that all negroes had been excluded, illegally, from the grand and petit juries; that his counsel had been deterred from pleading that fact or challenging the array on that ground, and also from asking for a change of venue to secure an impartial trial, or for a continuance to allow the excitement to subside, by the fear and danger of mob violence; and that a motion for a new trial and an appeal were prevented by the same fear. For these and other reasons it was alleged that he was deprived of various constitutional rights, and was about to be deprived of his life without due process of law.
On March 10, after a hearing upon evidence, the petition was denied, and it was ordered that the petitioner be remanded to the custody of the sheriff of Hamilton county, to be detained by him in his custody for a period of ten days, in which to enable the petitioner to prosecute an appeal, and, in default of the prosecution of the appeal within that time, to be then further proceeded with by the state court under its sentence. On March 17 an appeal to this court was allowed by Mr. Justice Harlan. On the following Monday, March 19, a similar order was made by this court, and it was ordered further 'that all proceedings against the appellant be stayed, and the custody of said appellant be retained pending this appeal.'
The sheriff of Hamilton county was notified by telegraph of the order, receiving the news before 6 o'clock on the same day. The evening papers of Chattanooga published a full account of what this court had done. And it is alleged that the sheriff and his deputies were informed, and had reason to believe, that an attempt would be made that night by a mob to murder the prisoner. Nevertheless, if the allegations be true, the sheriff, early in the evening, withdrew the customary guard from the jail, and left only the night jailer in charge. Subsequently, it is alleged, the sheriff and the other defendants, with many others unknown, conspired to break into the jail for the purpose of lynching and murdering Johnson, with intent to show contempt for the order of this court, and for the purpose of preventing it from hearing the appeal and Johnson from exercising his rights. In furtherance of this conspiracy a mob, including the defendants, except the sheriff, Shipp, and the night jailer, Gibson, broke into the jail, took Johnson out and hanged him, the sheriff and Gibson pretending to do their duty, but really sympathizing with and abetting the mob. The final acts as well as the conspiracy are alleged as a contempt.
The defendants have appeared and answered, and certain preliminary questions of law have been argued which it is convenient and just to have settled at the outset before any further steps are taken. The first question, naturally, is that of the jurisdiction of this court. The jurisdiction to punish for a contempt is not denied as a general, abstract proposition, as, of course, it could not be with success. Ex parte Robinson, 19 Wall. 505, 510, 22 L. ed. 205, 207; Ex parte Terry, 128 U. S. 289, 302, 303, 32 L. ed. 405, 408, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 77. But it is argued that the circuit court had no jurisdiction in the habeas corpus case, unless Johnson was in custody in violation of the Constitution (Rev. Stat. § 753, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 592), and that the appellate jurisdiction of this court was dependent on the act of March 3, 1891, chap. 517, § 5, 26 Stat. at L. 827, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 549 (Re Lennon, 150 U. S. 393, 37 L. ed. 1120, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 123), and by that act did not exist unless the case involved 'the construction or application of the Constitution of the United States.' If the case did not involve the application of the Constitution otherwise than by way of pretense, it is said that this court was without jurisdiction, and that its order might be contemned with impunity. And it is urged that an inspection of the evidence before the circuit court, if not the face of the petition, shows that the ground alleged for the writ was only a pretense.
We regard this argument as unsound. It has been held, it is true, that orders made by a court having no jurisdiction to make them may be disregarded without liability to process for contempt. Re Sawyer, 124 U. S. 200, 31 L. ed. 402, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 482; Ex parte Fisk, 113 U. S. 713, 28 L. ed. 1117, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 724; Ex parte Rowland, 104 U. S. 604, 26 L. ed. 861. But even if the circuit court had no jurisdiction to entertain Johnson's petition, and if this court had no jurisdiction of the appeal, this court, and this court alone, could decide that such was the law. It and it alone necessarily had jurisdiction to decide whether the case was properly before it. On that question, at least, it was its duty to permit argument, and to take the time required for such consideration as it might need. See Mansfield, C. & L. M. R. Co. v. Swan, 111 U. S. 379, 387, 28 L. ed. 462, 465, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 510. Until its judgment declining jurisdiction should be announced, it had authority, from the necessity of the case, to make orders to preserve the existing conditions and the subject of the petition, just as the state court was bound to refrain from further proceedings until the same time. Rev. Stat. § 766; act of ...
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