PEOPLE EX REL. MILLETT v. Babb

115 N.E.2d 241, 1 Ill. 2d 191, 1953 Ill. LEXIS 406
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 1953
Docket32760
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 115 N.E.2d 241 (PEOPLE EX REL. MILLETT v. Babb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
PEOPLE EX REL. MILLETT v. Babb, 115 N.E.2d 241, 1 Ill. 2d 191, 1953 Ill. LEXIS 406 (Ill. 1953).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Maxwell

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal to review an order of the criminal court of Cook County quashing a writ of habeas corpus and remanding petitioner, Elsie Millet, to the custody of respondent, John E. Babb, for extradition to the State of New York.

A complaint charging petitioner with being a fugitive from justice, and with the crime of subornation of perjury in the State of New York, as authorized by section 3 of the Fugitives from Justice Act, (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1951, chap. 60, par. 3,) was filed in the municipal court of Chicago on September 18, 1951. By agreement, hearings on this complaint were continued from time to time, and on December 26, 1951, while the fugitive complaint was pending, the Governor of Illinois, on the requisition of the Governor of New York, issued an extradition warrant. Thereafter, on January 11, 1952, no hearing ever having been had, the State entered a nolle prosequi on the fugitive complaint.

Petitioner was arraigned in the criminal court on the extradition warrant on January 11, 1952, her rights were explained to her by the court, and on that day her affidavit and petition for writ of habeas corpus were presented and the writ issued. On April 15, 1952, petitioner filed her amended petition, paragraph VI thereof alleging that petitioner was entitled to her discharge and that the People are barred from surrendering her custody to the messenger for the State of New York for the reason that the mandatory provisions of sections 3 and 4 of the Fugitives from Justice Act, requiring a hearing, its reduction to writing and the furnishing of a copy thereof to the executive of the State, were not complied with, in violation of due process as guaranteed her by the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution.

This is the only point presented and argued to this court. Petitioner does not here deny that she is substantially charged with the commission of a crime in the State of New York, nor that she is a fugitive from justice in that State. Her sole contention here is that the Governor of this State is not authorized to issue an extradition warrant pending completion of the municipal court proceedings instituted by the State of New York. She argues that it was the purpose of the Illinois legislature, in passing this act, to provide a fugitive with a judicial hearing, that such a proceeding, once commenced, precludes the Governor from disregarding the pending judicial hearing and issuing the warrant as an administrative act.

Petitioner cites no authority for her contention, and the purpose and interpretation of the sections of the statute upon which she relies have never been determined by this court. A similar contention was made in the recent case of People ex rel. Gilbert v. Babb, 415 Ill. 349, but was held to have been waived under the facts there present. To determine such purpose and interpretation we must consider the nature and purpose of the constitutional and statutory provisions establishing the right of extradition.

The right is vested in a demanding State and the duty is imposed upon an asylum State by section 2 of article IV of the constitution of the United States: “A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall, on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.” To effectuate this constitutional mandate Congress provided the necessary procedure by the adoption of section 5278, U.S. Rev. Stat.: “Whenever the executive authority of any State or Territory demands any person as a fugitive from justice, of the executive authority of any State or Territory to which such person has fled, and produces a copy of an indictment found or an affidavit made before a magistrate of any State or Territory, charging the person demanded with hav-^ ing committed treason, felony, or other crime, certified as authentic by the governor or chief magistrate of the State or Territory from whence the person so charged has fled, it shall be the duty of the executive authority of the State or Territory to which such person has fled to cause him to be arrested and secured, and to cause notice of the arrest to be given to the executive authority making such demand, or to the agent of such authority appointed to receive the fugitive, and to cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent when he shall appear.” Congress thus established a complete, expeditious and summary procedure for returning a fugitive from the asylum to the demanding State, for the guidance of and binding upon all the courts of the land. The nature, extent and limitations of the rights and duties of the respective States, their executives and the courts, involving the purpose, intent and interpretation of these constitutional and statutory enactments, have been before the courts, both State and Federal, in a multitude of cases out of which certain basic principles have become so well established they are no longer debatable.

Of these, pertinent to the question before us in this case, we find that the right and procedure of interstate extradition of fugitives is a creature of and controlled by the Federal constitution and effectuating statutes, (United States v. Meyering, 75 Fed. 2d 716; People ex rel. Guidotti v. Bell, 372 Ill. 572;) that it was intended to be a summary and ministerial proceeding to expedite the apprehension and return of fugitives rather than a judicial proceeding to inquire into the merits of the charges, and the statute should be accorded a liberal construction to accomplish the return of the fugitive summarily, (Biddinger v. Commission of Police, 245 U.S. 128;) that the procedure was not subject to the rules of judicial procedure and evidence, no rights being vested in the accused, and neither the constitution nor the statute providing for a judicial hearing that when the demanding State has complied with the requirements of the Federal statutes, a prima facie case is established and it is the duty of the executive of the asylum State to issue the warrant; that the only questions open to determination by the demanded executive are (1) is the fugitive substantially charged with the commission of a crime in the demanding State, a question of law to be determined from the face of the' requisition papers, and (2) is the party a fugitive from justice, i.e., was he in the demanding State on the date of the alleged offense, a question of fact which is established, prima facie, by the requisition papers and must be overcome by clear and convincing evidence, (Ex Parte Reggel, 115 U.S. 116; Pettibone v. Nichols, 203 U.S. 192;) that the procedure is not concerned with the merits of the case, it is no part of a criminal prosecution, and is not governed by technical common-law rules of procedure or evidence; and that the only evidence required is such evidence as satisfies the mind of the chief executive of the asylum State.

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Bluebook (online)
115 N.E.2d 241, 1 Ill. 2d 191, 1953 Ill. LEXIS 406, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-millett-v-babb-ill-1953.