USA v Best
| Date | 11 March 1948 |
| Court | United States District Courts. 1st Circuit. United States District Courts. 1st Circuit. District of Massachusetts |
| Docket Number | Case No. 48 |
Belligerent Occupation — Rights and Duties of the Occupant — Jurisdiction over Nationals of the Occupant.
Jurisdiction — Over Nationals Abroad — National Previously Accused of Treason Found in Territory under Allied Occupation — Right to Detain and bring to Home State for Trial.
The Facts.—This was a motion to dismiss an indictment for treason; it was based on lack of personal jurisdiction over the defendant.
The defendant was arrested without trial in Austria by the British military forces on or about January 29, 1946. He was handed over to the United States Army authorities about three weeks later and confined in Army prison barracks in the American Zone of Austria. About the middle of March 1946 the defendant was moved to Germany, and in December 1946 he was taken from there to Washington, D.C.
The defendant was at all times from February 10, 1946, to December 14, 1946, in the custody of the military forces of the United States.
An indictment for treason had been returned against the defendant in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on July 28, 1943. On January 6, 1947, the defendant was arraigned before the District Court for the District of Massachusetts on a second indictment for treason returned on December 14, 1946, in that court.
Held: that the motion must fail. The defendant had been rightly arrested, detained and brought to the United States. The Court said:
“Assuming, arguendo, the arrest, detention and removal to be illegal, the motion is denied on the authority of Pettibone v. NicholsUNKUNK, 203 U.S. 192, 27 S. Ct. 111, 51 L. Ed. 148, 7 Ann. Cas. 1047; In re JohnsonUNKUNK, 167 U.S. 120, 77 S. Ct. 735, 42 L. Ed. 103; Cook v. HartUNKUNK, 146 U.S. 183,13 S. Ct. 40, 36 L. Ed. 934; Mahon v. JusticeUNKUNK, 127 U.S. 700, 8 S. Ct. 1204, 32 L. Ed. 283; Ker v. IllinoisUNKUNK, 119 U.S. 436, 7 S. Ct. 225, 30 L. Ed. 421; McMahan v. Hunter, 10 Cir., 150 F. 2d. 498; United States ex rel. Voigt v. Toombs, 5 Cir., 67 F. 2d. 744; Whitney v. Zerbst, 10 Cir., 62 F. 2d. 970; United States v. Unverzagt, D.C., 299 F. 1015; Ex parte Lamar, 2 Cir., 274 F. 160.
“However, this court is of the opinion that the military authorities in the occupied countries of Austria and Germany had a right to arrest and detain the defendant where they had, as they did here, reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant was a threat to the safety of the military...
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