Parkinson v. United States

121 U.S. 281, 7 S. Ct. 896, 30 L. Ed. 959, 1887 U.S. LEXIS 2048

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: April 18, 1887
• Docket: 227
• Status: Published

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Waite

delivered the opinion of the court.

This case comes here on a certificate by the judges of the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Nevada, that they were opposed in opinion on certain questions which arose at the hearing of a writ of error for the review of the rulings of the District Court of the district at the trial of Bichard B. Parkinson, on an information by the district attorney, for unlawfully, fraudulently,' and feloniously voting at an election for a representative in Congress from Nevada, and for unlawfully, fraudulently, and feloniously registering his name as an elector qualified to vote at such election. The prosecution was under §§ 5511 and 55Í2 of the Bevised Statutes, which made the offences charged punishable by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not more than three years, or both. As the imprisonmc ul may be “ for a period longer than one year,” the court can order that it shall be in the' penitentiary. Bev. Stat. $ 5541. This makes the crime “infamous,” within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and the prosecution should have been by indictment and not by infer mation. It was so decided by this court, after this case was certified up by tbe Circuit Court, in Ex parte Wilson, 114 U. S. 417, and Mackin v. United States, 117 U. S. 348. As the judgment of the District Court must be reversed for this cause; the questions certified have become immaterial, and their determination unnecessary in the final disposition of the case. We, therefore, remand the case without answering them. Reversed.