People v. McLean

36 N.W. 231, 68 Mich. 480, 1888 Mich. LEXIS 945
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 2, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 36 N.W. 231 (People v. McLean) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. McLean, 36 N.W. 231, 68 Mich. 480, 1888 Mich. LEXIS 945 (Mich. 1888).

Opinion

Champlin, J.

McLean was convicted in the circuit court for the county of- Mackinac, for resisting an officer in-attempting to serve a warrant upon him, and was sentenced, to be imprisoned two years in the State'prison.

[481]*481The statute (How. Stat. § 9257) enacts:

“If any person shall knowingly and willfully obstruct, resist, or oppose any sheriff, * * * or other officer or person duly authorized, in serving or attempting to serve or execute any process, * * * issued by lawful authority, * *' * every person so offending shall, on conviction thereof, be punished,” etc.

The information sets out that respondent—

“ Did knowingly and willfully obstruct, resist, assault, and oppose one Peter A. Paquin, an under-sheriff in and for said county of .Mackinac, in his, said Peter A. Paquin’s, serving and attempting to serve a warrant for the arrest of William McLean, he, said William McLean, being charged in said warrant with the offense of assault and battery, said warrant being issued by Eobert Eutherford, a justice of the peace in and for the city of St. Ignace, against the form of the statute in such ease made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the people,” etc.

The information was objected to upon the trial, for the reason that it does not appear therefrom that the warrant was issued by lawful authority, and that the allegation that, it was issued by Eobert Eutheiford, a justice of the peace, is-not equivalent to the words of the statute defining the offense.

There are two things which are necessary to justify an arrest lipón a warrant:

1. A warrant good upon its face.

2. An authority in the person who undertakes to act under it. Drennan v. People, 10 Mich. 183.

A justice of the peace has no lawful authority to issue a warrant to arrest a person unless upon the complaint on oath of some person showing that an offense has been committed,. and that there is reasonable ground to believe that the accused committed the offense. The allegation in the statute, “made- or issued by lawful authority,” includes the jurisdictional. facts and steps which authorize the person or body who-makes the order or issues the warrant to act. It is true that-, [482]*482mo officer is bound to look behind a warrant good on its face, issued by an officer who prima facie has a right to issue warrants.

In statutory offenses, every essential element of the crime ■as defined by the statute must be averred in the information, either in the words of the statute, or in language substantially equivalent. Hall v. People, 43 Mich. 417 (5 N. W. Rep. 449); People v. Husted, 52 Id. 624 (18 N. W. Rep. 388.)

If we go back into the history of officers known as justices of the peace, we shall find that originally they were not ■authorized to issue warrants for the apprehension of offenders. They were first instituted in England in 1326, and their •duties were described in the most general terms. By 1 Edw. III. c. 16, they “were assigned to keep the peace;” and by 34 Edw. III. c. 1, they were empowered “ to take and arrest .all those that they may find by indictment or suspicion, and put them in prison.” This was in 1360. But neither in these ■or in any earlier statutes is there any authority conferred upon them to take an information as to the commission of a crime, and issue a summons or warrant for the apprehension of the suspected person. 1 Steph. Hist. Grim. Law, 190.

The same learned author states that the statutes above quoted gave them no other authority for the apprehension of ■offenders than was by the common law inherent in every constable, and indeed in every private person. The practice ■of issuing warrants by justices of the peace came into use by •degrees. But their authority to do so was disputed for centuries, and the subject formed a bone of contention between those eminent jurists, Ooke and Hale, the former maintaining against such authority and the latter in favor. The .granting of warrants, although recognized by various statutes, was not finally set upon an indispensable statutory foundation in England until the enactment of 11 and 12 Viet. c. 42, in 1848.

The authority of justices of the peace in this State must [483]*483be found in the Constitution and statutes enacted thereunder, and, as before stated, they can only issue a warrant upon a complaint on oath. To allege, therefore, in the information, that a warrant was issued by a justice of the peace, is not tatamount to averring that it was issued by lawful authority; for the authority is not and never was inherent in the officer, but is conferred under the statute by virtue of the complaint -under oath.

It appears .from the testimony returned in the bill of •exceptions that on the night of the twenty-third of August, 1887, L. J. Monteith was sheriff of Mackinac county, and Peter A. Paquin was under-sheriff; that about 10 o’clock in the evening of that day, Justice Rutherford handed the sheriff •a warrant for assault and battery against McLean in front of Rutherford’s office; that Peter A. Paquin was then present, and the sheriff told him to get into a hack, and go up to what was known as “ Red Annie’s,” a house of ill fame, by the road, and arrest McLean- if he found him there; that he would take another direction by the railroad track, and go to another house of ill fame, and search for McLean there; that the sheriff had the warrant with him, and that Paquin bad no warrant; that these houses of ill fame were about 80 rods apart; that he and the under-sheriff separated, the sheriff going up the railroad track, and the under-sheriff going in a hack in another direction.

Paquin arrived at “Red Annie’s,” found the door open, and a number of persons in the room. He saw McLean in there, and went in, and laid his hand on McLean’s shoulder, and said:

“ McLean, I want you. I have got a warrant for you; you are my prisoner.”

McLean then pulled a revolver from his right-hand coat pocket, and pointed it at Paquin’s head, and said:

“ Get out, you---, or I will blow your brains out.”

Paquin did not know whether the revolver was cocked or [484]*484loaded, but he backed out of the door, McLean following him with the revolver, pointed at him, saying:

“ Get out; get out; get out of the house, or I will kill you.”

About five minutes after he got out he heard the report of a revolver, but who fired it he did not know. He started to find the sheriff, and met him coming a short distance from the house. He did not tell McLean that he was an officer, and had no uniform or badge of office on. He had no personal acquaintance with McLean, and had never talked with him before that night. He did not know at the time he attempted to make the arrest where the sheriff was, only the sheriff had told him where he was going.

Upon this testimony, counsel for prisoner requested the court to instruct'the jury as follows:

If you find that under-sheriff Paquin had no warrant with him at the time he attempted to arrest the prisoner, and that the sheriff had the warrant, but was not with the under-sheriff at the time of the arrest, you must acquit him.”

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Bluebook (online)
36 N.W. 231, 68 Mich. 480, 1888 Mich. LEXIS 945, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-mclean-mich-1888.