People ex rel. Young v. Hannan

9 Misc. 600, 30 N.Y.S. 370, 61 N.Y. St. Rep. 724
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 15, 1894
StatusPublished

This text of 9 Misc. 600 (People ex rel. Young v. Hannan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York 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. Young v. Hannan, 9 Misc. 600, 30 N.Y.S. 370, 61 N.Y. St. Rep. 724 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1894).

Opinion

Davy, J.

The relator, Charles Young, was indicted by the grand jury of Monroe county in the month of June, 1893, for the crime of assault with intent to murder Herbert Guerin.

The indictment was sent from the Court of Oyer and Terminer to the Sessions, in which court the relator gave bail for his appearance to answer the indictment when prosecuted. Shortly thereafter he escaped to England, from which country he was extradited for the said crime. He was subsequently arraigned on the indictment and pleaded not guilty. At the commencement of the trial he objected to the form of the indictmeiit and to being tried for any other crime than assault in the first degree. He contended that he had been brought from England upon a warrant of extradition charging him with assault with intent to commit murder, and for that crime, and that only, he asked to be tried. This request was denied by the court, to which ruling the defendant excepted. Upon the trial he conducted his defense without the aid or assistance of counsel.

The trial resulted in his being convicted of assault in the [601]*601■second degree. He was then sentenced to be confined in the state prison at Auburn for the period of four years and six months. The relator then presented a petition to this court in which he alleged that he was unlawfully restrained of his liberty and imprisoned in the county jail of Monroe county. Upon this petition a writ of habeas corpus was issued, directing the sheriff of said county to produce the relator, so that the court might inquire into the cause of his imprisonment. A return was made by the sheriff to the writ, stating, in substance, that the relator was held by him, as such sheriff, by virtue of a bench warrant issued and delivered to him by the district attorney of the county of Monroe, upon an indictment ■duly found in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, whereby the relator was charged with the crime of assault in the first degree. To this return the relator answered, denying that the imprisonment was legal. He also offered in evidence the warrant of extradition and the testimony taken on the trial, showing that he was extradited from. England for the crime •of assault with intent to murder, and that he was convicted ■of a minor offense, namely, assault with intent to do bodily harm.

The relator contends that, under the treaty between Great Britain and the United States, he could not be tried or convicted of any other offense than the one for which he was extradited.

The right of this government to demand from Great Britain the surrender of Young, as a fugitive from justice, depended upon the extradition treaty existing between the two countries, which provides, among other things, that all persons charged with the crime of assault with intent to murder, committed within the jurisdiction of either government, who shall seek an asylum, or shall be found within the territory of the other, shall, upon mutual requisitions, be ■delivered up to justice.”

The question whether a person, surrendered under the treaty between Great Britain and the United States, could be .tried for any offense other than that for which he was extra-[602]*602dieted, once formed between the two governments the subject of a good deal of controversy. A wide difference of opinion also prevailed in the federal and state courts upon that point,, until the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of the United States v. Rauscher, 119 U. S. 407. Prior to this decision, and in 1869, a supplemental act to the treaty was passed by congress, which provides, in substance, that where a person was delivered up by a foreign government for .the purpose of being tried for a crime for which he had been extradited, that he should be protected against lawless violence until the final conclusion of his trial for the crime or offense specified in the warrant of .extradition. U. S. R. S. §§ 5272, 5275.

The English Parliament also passed an act known as the Extradition Act of 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. chap. 52), which provides “that a fugitive criminal shall not be delivered up, unless by the law of the foreign country, or by agreement,, he shall not be tried for any but the extradited offense until he has an opportunity of returning to that country, and the same protection from prosecution is secured in favor of fugitives to that country.”

Eauscher, who was a second mate on the American ship OTmpmcm, was extradited from Great Britain to the United-States upon the charge of having murdered, on the high seas, a member of the ship’s crew by the name of Janssen. He was subsequently tried and convicted for a minor offense — namely, cruel and inhuman punishment of the same seaman. His conviction was obtained upon the identical facts proved in the extradition proceedings. The case was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, which held that Eauscher was illegally convicted; that, under the treaty and laws of Congress, he could not be tried and convicted of any offense-' except that for which he was extradited, even though the offense for which he was tried might be of a minor or lesser grade than the one for which he was surrendered.

Mr. Justice Millee, who delivered the opinion of the court, said: “ That it was not intended that this treaty should be [603]*603used for any other purpose than to secure the trial of the person extradited for one of the offenses enumerated in the treaty.”' He also said: “ That if there was any doubt as to the construction of the treaty, the language of sections 5272 and 5275-of the United States Revised Statutes would be conclusive upon the courts as to the right of extradited persons. That' right,” he said, “ as we understand it, is that he shall be tried only for the offense for which he was delivered up, and that,, if not tried for that, or after trial and acquittal, he shall have-a reasonable time to leave the country before he is arrested upon the charge of any other crime committed previous to his-extradition.”

Mr. Justice Gbay, in concurring in the decision of the-court, based it upon the single ground that, by the act of Congress of 1869, the prisoner could not be tried for any other crime than the one specified in the warrant of extradition.

In Ker v. Illinois, 119 U. S. 443, it was held, that where an extradited person is brought to this country he comes clothed with the protection which the nature of such proceedings and the true consideration of the treaty gives him. One of the rights with which he is thus clothed was that he should he tried for no other offense than that named in the warrant of extradition.

In the case of People ex rel. Post v. Cross, 135 N. Y. 540, Judge O’Bbien, in referring to the Rauscher case, states the point very clearly. He says that when the United States took Rauscher its faith and honor was pledged, at least impliedly, to the effect that it would not permit its courts to try him for any other offense, even though it might be of a lesser grade than that upon which he was surrendered.”

It appears, therefore, from these decisions, that the jurisdiction given by the treaty to the courts to try criminal offenders is limited to the particular offense for which extradition may be had, and which is specifically designated in the warrant of extradition.

The learned district attorney contends, however, that the rule laid down in the Rauscher

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Related

United States v. Rauscher
119 U.S. 407 (Supreme Court, 1886)
Ker v. Illinois
119 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1886)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 Misc. 600, 30 N.Y.S. 370, 61 N.Y. St. Rep. 724, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-young-v-hannan-nysupct-1894.