United States v. Mays

1 Idaho 763
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 15, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1 Idaho 763 (United States v. Mays) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Mays, 1 Idaho 763 (Idaho 1880).

Opinion

Morgan, C. J.,

delivered tbe opinion;

Priceett, J., con-’ curring. Buce, J., having prosecuted in tbe court below as United States district attorney, took no part in tbe bearing or decision.

In November, 1879, tbe defendants were beld by James Stout, Esq., United States commissioner, to await tbe action of tbe grand jury on a charge of robbing tbe United States mail in Owyhee county, Idaho territory. At tbe January term of tbe district court, beld at Boise city, Ada county, Hon. H. E. Prickett presiding, a grand jury was summoned in conformity with tbe provisions of section 27 of an act concerning grand and petit jurors of tbe territory of Idaho, approved January 10, 1873, and were impaneled and sworn as a territorial grand jury. They were then charged and directed to inquire into offenses committed against tbe United States, in tbe second judicial district of which the said Ada and Owyhee counties were a part.

Defendants interposed a challenge in writing to tbe panel, on tbe ground that tbe said grand jury were not selected, summoned, or impaneled in accordance with any law of the United States, and that they bad no jurisdiction to inquire into offenses against tbe laws of tbe United States, or any offense committed outside tbe limits of tbe county of Ada, which challenge was disallowed by tbe court, to which ruling defendants excepted. Tbe said grand jury afterwards, to wit, on January 13, 1880, found and reported to tbe court a bill of indictment against tbe said defendants for robbing a carrier of tbe United States mail, of such mail in Owyhee county, in said territory.

Afterwards, on tbe seventeenth day of January, 1880, the said defendants were brought into court to be tried for said offense, by a jury selected in conformity with tbe laws of said territory, from tbe county of Ada alone, and summoned by tbe sheriff of said county- Before said jury [765]*765were sworn and impaneled, the said defendants interposed a challenge to tbe whole panel and array of.said jurors in writing, as follows, to wit: “That the offense to be tried was an offense against the laws of the United States, and that the said jury had not been drawn, selected, or summoned in conformity with any law of the United States;” which challenge was disallowed by the court, and the said defendants then tried, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment in the territorial prison, at hard labor, for the period of their natural lives.

The part of the indictment necessary to notice is as follows: “ The said defendants, William Mays and William H. Overholt, are accused by the grand jury, by this indictment, of the crime of robbing a United States mail carrier, of the United States mail, committed as follows: The said William Mays and William H. Overholt, on the twentieth day of November, 1879, at the county of Owyhee, in the territory of Idaho, in and upon one Joseph Goodwin, the said Joseph Goodwin then and there being a carrier of the United States mail, and the said Joseph Goodwin then and there having the said mail in his possession, feloniously did make an assault, and the said Joseph Goodwin, in bodily fear and danger of his life, then and there feloniously did put, and of the said mail then and there of the property of the United States, and of the value of one thousand dollars, from the person and possession, and against the will of the said Joseph Goodwin, then and there feloniously, and with force and violence, did rob, take, steal, and carry away, the said William Mays and William H. Overholt each then and there being severally armed with a dangerous weapon, to wit, a gun, with intent, if then and there resisted by the said Joseph Goodwin, the said Joseph Goodwin then and there to kill, against the peace,” etc.

The instruction offered by the prosecution objected to by the defendant, and given by the court, is as follows: “The jury are instructed, that if they believe from the evidence that the defendants feloniously took possession of the United States mail, or any part of it, by force or intimida[766]*766tion of or from a carrier of tbe mail, then tbe offense of robbery was complete.”

Tbe first and second objections to the proceedings of tbe court below, are to tbe manner of summoning and impaneling tbe grand and trial juries. We have examined all tbe authorities cited, which discuss tbe method of summoning juries for territorial courts, in the trial of offenses against the laws of tbe United States, with tbe following result: The case of Clinton v. Englébrecht was one arising wholly under tbe statutes of tbe territory of Utah, and tbe supreme court, in that case, simply decide, that tbe territorial court is not a district court of tbe United States; and that tbe legislature of tbe territory having prescribed tbe mode in which juries should be drawn and summoned for tbe district court, it was proper and necessary that said court should follow tbe mode therein pointed out.

In this territory, tbe legislature has not pointed out tbe method to be pursued by tbe district court while sitting for tbe trial of offenses against tbe laws of tbe United States.

This is clearly indicated by tbe fact that tbe grand and petit juries, to be drawn for tbe district court, have a jurisdiction restricted to the county in which the court is, for tbe time being, in-session. It is said, in United States v. Dawson, 15 How. 467 (20 Curt. 698), that congress, having fixed tbe place of tbe trial of an offense against tbe laws of tbe United States, committed outside the limits of a state, disposes of all questions of jurisdiction as to venue, trial in tbe county, and jury from tbe vicinage.

Congress lias by law given the district court of this territory jurisdiction of offenses against tbe laws of tbe United States. It has further given tbe judges of tbe supreme court power to fix tbe times and places of bolding the said court. Tbe judges have so fixed them. By fixing tbe place of bolding tbe court, they have fixed the place of trial of such offenses. Congress, therefore, having by means of tbe power delegated to tbe judges of this court fixed the place of tbe trial of tbe offense mentioned in this indictment, lias, in tbe language of this decision, disposed of all questions [767]*767of jurisdiction of tbe court as well as all objections to tbe jury as not being drawn from tbe vicinage.

Tbe court, in tbe United States v. Dawson, referred to above, decided that a grand and petit jury drawn from tbe district and state of Arkansas was a proper and competent jury in each case to find a bill of indictment and try a person for a crime committed outside of tbe said state of Arkansas; and in tbe adjoining Indian territory, it follows by a parity of reasoning, that congress, although by indirect means, having fixed tbe place of trial of tbe offense charged against these defendants, tbe grand and petit jury in use in said court waá a proper and legal jury to whom to submit tbe cause.

Again, it may be said, considering tbe powers of tbe said district court as a court sitting for tbe trial of offenses against tbe laws of tbe United States, that congress lias by law conferred upon tbe territorial court tbe same jurisdiction possessed by tbe district and circuit courts of tbe United States in all cases arising under tbe constitution and laws of the United States. (E,ev. Laws U. S., sec.

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Bluebook (online)
1 Idaho 763, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mays-idaho-1880.