Fournier v. Roed

161 N.W.2d 458, 1968 N.D. LEXIS 85
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 1968
DocketCr. 367
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 161 N.W.2d 458 (Fournier v. Roed) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fournier v. Roed, 161 N.W.2d 458, 1968 N.D. LEXIS 85 (N.D. 1968).

Opinions

ERICKSTAD, Judge (on reassignment).

George Fournier, an Indian and an enrolled member of the Devils Lake Sioux Tribe, was arrested without a warrant on February 3, 1968, within the exterior boundaries of the Fort Totten Indian Reservation by a deputy sheriff of Ramsey County. The reservation lies within Benson County but is adjacent to Ramsey County. Immediately after arresting Mr. Fournier the deputy sheriff transported him to the Ramsey County jail.

On the same date a complaint was filed with the County Justice of Ramsey County, charging Mr. Fournier with the commission of the crime of larceny of an automobile, a felony under our law; and thereupon the county justice set a preliminary hearing for February 7. Later the case was continued to February 10, when a preliminary hearing was commenced and evidence was presented for the purpose of determining whether a public offense had been committed, and, if so, whether there was sufficient cause to believe that Mr. Fournier had committed it.

At the close of the testimony Mr. Four-nier moved for dismissal of the criminal complaint on the ground that the Ramsey County law enforcement officer had exceeded his jurisdiction by making the arrest on the Indian reservation and thus the arrest was illegal, justifying Mr. Fournier’s release.

As Mr. Fournier on February 9 had sought a writ of habeas corpus from the District Court of Ramsey County and that court on February 10 had issued a writ of habeas corpus commanding the Sheriff of Ramsey County to bring Mr. Fournier before the court on February 14 for a determination of his application for his release through a writ of habeas corpus, the county justice postponed making any decision on the motion, and, as far as our record discloses, has not yet determined whether a public offense was committed, and, if so, whether there is probable cause to believe that Mr. Fournier committed it.

Following the hearing on February 14, the district judge, the Honorable Douglas B. Heen, rendered his memorandum decision, setting forth his reasons for denying Mr. Fournier’s release and for quashing the writ. There is no provision under our law for appeal from this decision; accordingly, pursuant to § 87 of our constitution, the petitioner has now filed with our court a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, praying for his release upon the same grounds asserted in the district court.

Although the scope of the inquiry in an application to this court for a writ of ha-beas corpus was not made an issue by the petitioner or by the State, our court has struggled much with this question. One view apparently is that if the trial court has jurisdiction, in a narrow sense, of the [460]*460offense and of the person of the defendant, habeas corpus will not lie for his discharge, notwithstanding that the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States may have been violated in the taking into custody of the petitioner.

In light of the development of the law surrounding the Great Writ, as set forth in Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S. Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963), by Justice Brennan for the majority and by Justice Harlan for the minority, it is the opinion of the majority of this court that the scope of the inquiry in an application to this court for a writ of habeas corpus is much broader than that expressed above when the application is based upon grounds asserting that the petitioner has been illegally restrained of his liberty in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.

In Fay Justice Brennan, speaking for ■the majority, said:

Nor is it true that at common law ha-beas corpus was available only to inquire into the jurisdiction, in a narrow sense, of the committing court. Bushell’s Case is again in point. Chief Justice Vaughan did not base his decision on the. theory that the Court of Oyer and Terminer had no jurisdiction to commit persons for contempt, but on the plain denial of due process, violative of Magna Charta, of a court’s imprisoning the jury because it disagreed with the verdict:
“ * * * [W]hen a man is brought by Habeas Corpus to the Court, and upon retorn of it, it appears to the Court, That he was against Law imprison’d and detain’d, * * * he shall never be by the Act of the Court remanded to his unlawful imprisonment, for then the Court should do an act of Injustice in imprisoning him, de novo, against Law, whereas the great Charter is Quod nullus libet homo imprisonetur nisi per legem terrae; This is the present case, and this was the case upon all the Presidents [precedents] produc’d and many more that might be produc’d, where upon Ha-beas Corpus, many have been discharg’d * *
“This appears plainly by many old Books, if the Reason of them be rightly taken, For insufficient causes are as no causes retorn’d; and to send a man back to Prison for no cause retorn’d, seems unworthy of a Court.” Vaughan, at 156, 124 Eng.Rep., at 1016, 9 Howell’s State Trials, at 1023.
To the same effect, we read in Bacon’s Abridgment:
“[I]f the commitment be against law, as being made by one who had no jurisdiction of the cause, or for a matter for which hy law no man ought to he punished, the court are to discharge him * * *; and the commitment is liable to the same objection where the cause is so loosely set forth, that the court cannot adjudge whether it were a reasonable ground of imprisonment or not.”
Thus, at the time that the Suspension Clause was written into our Federal Constitution and the first Judiciary Act was passed conferring habeas corpus jurisdiction upon the federal judiciary, there was respectable common-law authority for the proposition that habeas was available to remedy any kind of governmental restraint contrary to fundamental law. * * * (footnote omitted)
Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 404-405, 83 S.Ct. 822, 830, 9 L.Ed.2d 837.

Emphasizing the breadth of the Great Writ, Justice Brennan continued:

Furthermore, our decision today affects all procedural hurdles to the achievement of swift and imperative justice on habeas corpus * * *.
Fay v. Noia, supra, 372 U.S. 391, 435, 83 S.Ct. 822, 847.

Justice Harlan dissented from the majority opinion in Fay because he believed [461]*461that the state conviction on which Noia’s detention was based rested on an adequate and independent non-federal ground, that ground being that the relevant facts concerning the claim of a coerced confession were reasonably available and yet Noia had allowed the time for a direct appeal to lapse without seeking a review by the state appellate court. However, Justice Harlan and those who joined him in his dissent agreed that there had been considerable development of the law of habeas corpus. He pointed out that during the pre-1915 period the federal courts, in considering applications for habeas corpus which complained of detention pursuant to a judgment of conviction and sentence, purported to examine only the jurisdiction of the sentencing tribunal. We quote:

In the leading case of Ex parte Watkins, 3 Pet. 193, 7 L.Ed. 650, the Court stated:

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Fournier v. Roed
161 N.W.2d 458 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
161 N.W.2d 458, 1968 N.D. LEXIS 85, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fournier-v-roed-nd-1968.