In re Reinitz

7 N.Y. Crim. 74
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedJune 15, 1889
StatusPublished

This text of 7 N.Y. Crim. 74 (In re Reinitz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Reinitz, 7 N.Y. Crim. 74 (uscirct 1889).

Opinion

Bkowjst, J.

[After stating the facts as above.]—A preliminary objection is made that this court has no jurisdiction to issue a writ of habeas corpus in such a case. But sections 752 and 753 of the United States Revised Statutes provide for writs of habeas corpus to inquire into the “ cause of restraint of liberty” where the prisoner is “ in custody in violation of the Constitution, or of a law or treaty of the United States.” The petition presents facts sufficient to raise an inquiry upon that subject, and if a case under that clause of section 753 is made out, habeas corpus from the Federal courts is an appropriate remedy, though the prisoner be held under process of the States courts. Ex parte Royall, 117 U. S. 211; United States v. Rauscher, 119 U. S. 407, 431; Wildenhus’s Case, 120 U. S. 1. The preliminary objection, therefore, presents no different question from that on the merits of the application.

Until the decision in the case of Rauscher, supra, in December, 1886, wide differences of opinion had prevailed in both the Federal and State courts whether a prisoner extradited under a treaty for one offense could be tried for another. The Supreme Court, in the case of Rauscher, upon full consideration and a review of the leading authorities, has definitely settled that question, holding that an extra dited prisoner cannot be arrested or tried for any offense except that for which he was extradited until the termina[77]*77tion of the extradition proceedings and the lapse of a reasonable time thereafter to enable him to return to the country from which he was brought.

The case of Rauscher, however, like all the other reported cases on this subject, was a case of arrest and trial on a criminal charge. The only reported case to which I have been referred of a prisoner extradited from a foreign country and arrested in a civil suit is that of Adriance v. Lagrave (1 Hun, 689 ; S. C. 59 N. Y. 110), which arose in 1874, and does not essentially differ from the present case. The order of arrest was there set aside in the General Term, but was upheld in the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court in the case of Rauscher referred to the Lagrave ease, and while alluding to the difference between an arrest on a criminal charge and an arrest in a civil suit incidental to the collection of a debt, withheld any expression of opinion as to the legality of an arrest in a civil suit under such circumstances. The question to be now determined is whether there is any difference in the principles applicable that should lead to a different result.

The main difference of opinion has been as to the construction to he put upon extradition treaties ; and whether the surrender of the prisoner is to be deemed a surrender for a particular purpose only, with the implication that he is not to be restrained of his liberty for any other cause, or whether the surrender, when made upon compliance with the preliminary conditions of the treaty, becomes an absolute surrender and without any such implied limitation. The latter was the view of • a majority of the Court of Appeals in the case of Lagrave, while the opposite view was maintained at the General Term.

The decision of the Court of Appeals, however, was not based upon any grounds peculiar to an arrest in a civil suit, but upon, grounds applicable alike to a civil and criminal arrest, without distinction. As those grounds are disapproved by the Supreme Court in the case of Rauscher, and the right of criminal arrest denied, the Lagrave case, as an. [78]*78authority for a civil arrest, fails also. The opinion in the Supreme Court, treating the subject in the broadest manner, upholds in its general scope the views of Daniels, J., at the ¡ General Term in the Lagrave case, and it reinforces them • by its construction of sections 5270, 5272 and 5275 of lire ¡j Revised Statutes, which are declared to be supplementary X to the extradition treaties, and to enforce their implied limitations. The right of asylum is a principle of public law, recognized by all sovereignties. Ro concession by a surrender of a prisoner in abridgment of this right is made, except for grave offenses under careful restrictions that exclude minor misdemeanors, most political offenses, and, much more, mere claims for the collection of debts. Though the implied restrictions of the treaty are for the most part spoken of by the Supreme Court in reference to a criminal arrest, since that was the question before the court, yet there are many passages in the opinion that in principle embrace equally arrests in civil suits. At page 420 it is said : “It is therefore very clear that ... it was not intended that the treaty should be used for any other purpose than to secure the trial of the person extradited for one of the offenses enumerated in the treaty.”

Again, at page 422: “As the right of transfer, the right to demand it, the obligation to grant it, the proceedings under which it takes place, all show that it is for a limited and defined purpose that the transfer is made, it is impossible to conceive of the exercise of jurisdiction in such a case for any other purpose than that mentioned in the treaty, and ascertained by the proceedings under which the party is extradited, without an implication of fraud upon the rights of the party extradited, and of bad faith to the country which permitted his extradition.”

A civil arrest is clearly as incompatible with such limitations as an arrest on a criminal offense.

So just in principle are such limitations that the Court of Appeals in the Lagrave case declared that the provisions for protection against lawless violence under section 5275, [79]*79U. S. Rev. Stat., “ ought [by legislation] to be extended to protection from other prosecutions or detentions.” ’ But | that section, as construed by the Supreme Court, does extend to protection from other prosecutions. . It declares that “ the President shall have power to take all necessary measures for the transportation and safe keeping of such accused person, and for security against lawless violence, until the final conclusion of his trial for the crimes or offenses specified in the warrant of extradition, and until his final discharge from custody or imprisonment for or on account of such crimes or offenses, and for a 7'easonáble time thereafter, and may employ such portion of the land or naval forces of the United States, or of the militia thereof, as may be necessary for the safe-keeping and protection of the accused” The language of the section includes not merely “security against lawless violence,” but, in addition thereto, “ the safe-keeping and protection” of the accused until his acquittal, or, if convicted, until he has served out his sentence, and for a reasonable time thereafter. Reasonable time for what ? “ Obviously,” says the Supreme Court, “ until he shall have a reasonable time to retui'n unmolested to the country from which he was brought.” Mr. Justice Gbay concurred in the judgment of the court solely upon that construction of the statute.

, Mo reasons are perceived why the limitations of the treaty and the provisions of the statute, as thus construed, are not as applicable to a civil arrest as to a criminal one. The prisoner may, indeed, give bail in a civil action. But so might he in all those minor criminal offenses for which he could not be extradited, and upon which no arrest is permitted.

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Related

Patch v. White
117 U.S. 210 (Supreme Court, 1886)
Ex Parte Royall
117 U.S. 241 (Supreme Court, 1886)
United States v. Rauscher
119 U.S. 407 (Supreme Court, 1886)
Ker v. Illinois
119 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1886)
Wildenhus's Case
120 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1887)
Adriance v. . Lagrave
59 N.Y. 110 (New York Court of Appeals, 1874)

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Bluebook (online)
7 N.Y. Crim. 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-reinitz-uscirct-1889.