UNITED STATES V. FRIES
| Decision Date | 01 January 1799 |
| Citation | 3 U. S. 515 |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
CIRCUIT COURT,
Indictment for treason by levying war against the United States, at Bethlehem, in the County of Northampton. The prisoner, after a trial that lasted fifteen days, [Footnote 1] was convicted, whereupon Lewis and Dallas, his counsel, moved for a new trial on two general grounds.
1st, that there had been a mistrial.
2d, that there had not been an unbiased and impartial trial.
I. The facts on the first ground appeared to be these:
A venire, tested 11 October, 1798, and returnable 11 April, 1799, had issued by which the marshal was commanded to summon 24 grand jurors and "a number of honest and lawful men of your said district, not less than fortyeight, and not exceeding sixty, to serve as petit jurors." Annexed to this venire the marshal in due form made a return of the whole number of sixty jurors, all of whom were summoned from the City and County of Philadelphia, and on a separate paper signed by him he returned an additional number of 17 jurors summoned from the County of Northampton and of 12 jurors summoned from the County of Bucks, making in the whole 89 jurors. For this latter return, however,
no venire had issued, nor did any special award appear on the record, and the jury that tried the prisoner was composed of jurors from Philadelphia, Northampton, and Bucks.
II. The facts on the second ground in support of the motion for a new trial were that Rhodes, one of the jurors, after he had been summoned as a juror, declared at several places, at several times, and to several persons in substance as follows: "That he was not safe at home for these people (meaning the insurgents) that they ought all to be hung, and particularly that Fries must be hung." The juror was confronted with the witnesses who attested these declarations, and denied them, [Footnote 2] as pointed particularly at Fries, but admitted that he had made use of general expressions indicative of his disapprobation of the conduct of the insurgents.
After a solemn consideration of the subject, Iredell, Justice, delivered his opinion in favor of a new trial, on the second ground of objection, that one of the jurors had made declarations, as well in relation to the prisoner personally as to the general question of the insurrection, which manifested a bias or predetermination that ought never to be felt by a juror. He added that he did not regard the first ground of objection as insurmountable, but deemed it unnecessary to give a decisive opinion on it.
Peters, District Judge, did not think that either objection ought to...
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Rubenstein v. United States
...period of time the accepted procedure for presenting a question of that kind has been by motion for new trial. United States v. Fries, 3 U.S. 515, 3 Dall. 515, 1 L.Ed. 701; Raub v. Carpenter, 187 U.S. 159, 23 S.Ct. 72, 47 L.Ed. 119; United States v. Mayer, 235 U.S. 55, 35 S.Ct. 16, 59 L.Ed.......