Falk v. United States

15 App. D.C. 446, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3530
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedDecember 5, 1899
DocketNo. 916
StatusPublished
Cited by53 cases

This text of 15 App. D.C. 446 (Falk v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Falk v. United States, 15 App. D.C. 446, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3530 (D.C. Cir. 1899).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Morris

delivered the opinion of the Court :

The appellant, Maximilian W. Falk, was indicted in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia on April 4; 1898, for the crime of adultery under the third section of the Act of Congress of March 3, 1887, Ch. 397 (24 Stat. 635). He pleaded not guilty, and was released from custody upon his giving bail or entering into recognizance to appear for trial when called. On January 23, 1899, the case was called for trial and the trial was entered upon, and some of the testimony on behalf of the prosecution was taken, the appellant being present with his counsel. The trial, however, was not finished on that day, and the jury was respited until the following day. At the opening of the court on the following day, January 24, 1899, the trial was resumed. The appellant was called, but failed to respond; and it appeared that he had absconded and left the jurisdiction. His counsel thereupon withdrew from further connection with the case; and the trial proceeded in the absence of the appellant, the testimony for the prosecution being resumed and concluded. The case was given to the jury, and the j ury returned a verdict of guilty as indicted. When, upon the coming in of the jury to render their verdict, the [451]*451appellant was called to hear the verdict, he again failed to respond, and the verdict was received in his absence.

New counsel then appeared for the appellant, and filed a motion for a new trial, and a motion in arrest of judgment. But the court declined to hear either motion at that time, on the ground, as stated by it and set forth in the record, that “ during the trial the defendant escaped, and it was announced at the bar of the court, by his then counsel, that he had left the jurisdiction, and the court has no information that he has returned to the jurisdiction or surrendered himself into custody, or intends to do so.”

A bench warrant having been issued for his apprehension, the appellant was taken under it in the city of New York, and he was brought back to this District and committed to prison. He was subsequently brought into court; and the motions for a new trial and in arrest of j udgment were then argued, and were overruled or denied, and the prisoner was sentenced to a term of imprisonment with labor for six months in the penitentiary at Moundsville, in the State of West Virginia. From this judgment he has prosecuted the present appeal.

There are certain other facts also, which are set forth in the transcript of record before us, and which it is proper to, mention, inasmuch as they constitute the basis of one of the assignments of error argued in this court.

It appears that at or about the time of the adjournment of the court on the first day of the trial, it was desired to prepare for the trial of the next ensuing case, which was an indictment for murder, and to ascertain how many of the jurors on the regular panel for the term were qualified to sit therein, so that the marshal might summon the requisite number of talesmen if any should be needed. Two of the jurors in the appellant’s case, who were on the regular panel, were thereupon examined on their voir dire as to their competency to serve as jurors in the murder case, and were accepted as qualified. They afterwards actually served [452]*452in the murder case; but they were not sworn'in tbe murder case at this time, nor was the murder case then called for trial. This proceeding-is claimed to have been an irregularity that vitiated the trial of the appellant.

There is no bill of exceptions in this case. A reversal of the judgment is sought upon grounds claimed to be apparent on the record. The assignments of error are five in number; but they may be reduced to three propositions, as follows:

(1) That the act of March 3,1887, under which the prosecution was had, does not apply to the District of Columbia, and therefore that the offense of adultery is not here punishable under that act.

(2) That it was error in the court below to allow the trial to proceed in the absence of the appellant, after he had absconded.

(3) That it was error to examine, outside of the trial of this cause, two of the jurors in the cause on their voir dire as to their competency to sit as jurors in a murder cause thereafter next to be called for trial.

1. With reference to the first of these propositions, as conceded by counsel for the appellant, this court has heretofore considered the question in two cases, that of Knight v. United States, 6 App. D. C. 1, and that of Chase v. United States, 7 App. D. C. 149; and has held adversely to the contention of the appellant. But it is suggested that we review and revise our opinion in those cases, in view of the more recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of France v. Connor, 161 U. S. 65. We find nothing, however, in the case of France v. Connor that requires us to modify anything that has been said by us in the previous cases.

The case of France v. Connor arose in the State (then Territory) of Wyoming; and the question in it was, whether the 18th section of the Act of Congress of March 3, 1887, relative to dower, applied to the Territory of Wyoming, as well as to the Territory of Utah, which undoubtedly was the [453]*453place for which the statute was principally intended, there being in Wyoming at the time a territorial statute in force which abolished dower. The question was whether the Act of Congress nullified the statute of Wyoming, and revived the right of dower in that Territory. This question was answered in the negative by the Supreme'Court, which held, first, that a proper construction of the act restricted the operation of section 18, relative to dower, to the Territory of Utah alone; and secondly, on broader grounds, that, in an enactment peculiarly applicable to the conditions existing in the Territory of Utah, it was not to be presumed that Congress intended to supersede or annul the local law of any other Territory in regard to real estate. It is upon the authority of this latter proposition that it is suggested that we should revise our opinion in the case of Chase v. United States. The argument is.that, there being an old statute of Maryland of the year 1715 in force in this District, for the punishment of adultery by a fine of 1,200 pounds of tobacco, it is no more to be presumed that Congress intended to supersede the criminal law of any other place subject to its exclusive jurisdiction than the local law of real estate of such jurisdiction. It is also argued, that it is not to be presumed that Congress intended that the act of March 3,1887, should in any of its provisions apply to the District of Columbia, unless the intent appears clearly and unequivocally on the face of the statute.

But we think that both of these arguments were fully considered in our former opinions; and we see no reason to depart from the conclusion therein reached.

Referring to the first five sections of the act, which are general in their language and not restricted to any special Territory or place under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, the Supreme Court said in the case of France v. Connor:

“These five sections do not mention the place of commission of any offense; and may perhaps be held to include

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Bluebook (online)
15 App. D.C. 446, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3530, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/falk-v-united-states-cadc-1899.