United States v. Miller

• Decision Date: 24 November 1936
• Citation: 17 F. Supp. 65
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. MILLER et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Kentucky

17 F. Supp. 65

UNITED STATES v. MILLER et al.

District Court, W. D. Kentucky, at Owensboro.

November 24, 1936.

Bunk Gardner, U. S. Atty., and Oldham Clarke and Eli H. Brown, III, Asst. U. S. Attys., all of Louisville, Ky., for the United States.

Beckham A. Robertson, of Owensboro, Ky., for defendants.

HAMILTON, District Judge.

The defendants have demurred to the first and second counts of the indictment herein on the ground that no public offense is charged. The first count of the indictment charges the defendants with unlawful traveling in interstate commerce from Nebo in the state of Kentucky to the states of Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina, with intent to avoid prosecution for robbery, said to have been committed by the use of deadly weapons, the fruits thereof being $9,500 in money of the United States.

The second count of the indictment charges the defendants with transporting, and aiding and abetting each other in transporting in interstate commerce from Nebo in the state of Kentucky to the states of Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas $9,500 of money and securities of the United States which had theretofore been stolen from G. B. Gooch in the state of Kentucky. The first count of the indictment is laid under the Act of May 18, 1934, c. 302, 48 Stat. 782, 18 U.S.C.A. § 408e, which makes it an offense for any person to move or travel in interstate or foreign commerce with intent to avoid prosecution for murder, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, mayhem, rape, assault with a dangerous weapon, or extortion accompanied by threats of violence, or attempt to commit any of the enumerated offenses under the laws of the place from which he flees, or to avoid giving testimony in any criminal proceedings in such place in which the commission of a felony is charged.

The second count is laid under the Act of May 22, 1934, c. 333, § 3, 48 Stat. 794, 18 U.S.C.A. § 415, which provides whoever shall transport or cause to be transported in interstate or foreign commerce any goods, wares, or merchandise, securities or money of the value of $5,000 or more, theretofore stolen or taken feloniously by fraud or with intent to steal or purloin, knowing the same to have been so stolen or taken, etc.

The sole ground of demurrer is the unconstitutionality of the respective acts under which the offenses are charged. It is claimed the statute supporting the first count is void because of uncertainty, and as to this statute and the supporting one for the second count, that neither is a proper exercise of the power to regulate commerce among the states under section 8, article 1 of the Constitution, and in violation of article 4, section 2, cl. 2 thereof, and the Tenth Amendment.

Article 4, § 2, cl. 2 of the Constitution provides any person charged in any state with crime who shall flee from justice and be found in another state shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled be delivered up to be removed for trial to the state having jurisdiction.

Amendment 10 provides that powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Article 1, § 8, provides that the Congress shall have power to regulate commerce among the several states and with the Indian tribes.

It is claimed by the defendants that the Act of May 18, 1934, has no application until there has first been a violation of a state law, and that it lays down no tests for determining when the state offense has been committed, and for this reason it is indefinite and no person charged under it can with reasonable certainty determine when it is applicable to him. The act makes it unlawful for any person to move or travel in interstate or foreign commerce from any state to avoid prosecutions for the crimes enumerated in the section. It is not made an offense under this section to flee from a prosecution of an offense against the laws of the United States, but solely for one punishable under a state, district, or territorial law.

Every criminal statute creating a new offense must be so explicit in its terms as to inform those who are subject to penalties under it what conduct on their part will render them liable. A statute so vague in its terms that men of ordinary intelligence must guess at its meaning and differ as to its application violates every essential element of justice and fair play, and if the statute here involved is of such indefiniteness, it is void.

A statute is not void even though offenses denounced by it are not defined, if such offenses were known to the common law. The statute relating to the first count of the indictment makes it an offense for a person to travel in interstate commerce with the intent to avoid prosecution for murder, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, mayhem, rape, assault with a dangerous weapon, or extortion accompanied by threats of violence, or an attempt to commit any of the foregoing offenses under the laws of the state from which he flees, or to avoid giving testimony in any criminal proceedings in such place in which the commission of a felony is charged. All of the crimes stated in the statute were well known offenses at common law, and to "avoid giving testimony" is an expression of well-defined meaning to any person of average intelligence. Flight from punishment is as old as the law. No person of ordinary intelligence would have any difficulty in applying the statute to...