United States v. Stephan

49 F. Supp. 897, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2750
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedMay 6, 1943
DocketNo. 26619
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 49 F. Supp. 897 (United States v. Stephan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Stephan, 49 F. Supp. 897, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2750 (E.D. Mich. 1943).

Opinion

TUTTLE, District Judge.

This is a petition for the allowance of an appeal from the final judgment of this court in this cause sentencing the defendant Max Stephan to death. The defendant was indicted for the crime of treason on June 17, 1942, and was convicted on July 2, 1942, sentence of death being entered on August 6, 1942. Thereafter, the defendant appealed to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which court on February 6, 1943, affirmed the judgment and sentence of this court. Stephan v. United States, 6 Cir., 133 F.2d 87. Defendant, on March 4, 1943, filed with the Supreme Court of the United States a petition for certiorari requesting that court to review the case. On April 5, 1943, the Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari, 63 S.Ct. 858, 87 L.Ed. —; but subsequently, on April 14, 1943, upon application of the defendant the Supreme Court entered a stay order restraining this court from executing its sentence, which stay is still in effect. 63 S.Ct. 984, 87 L.Ed. -. Pending the ultimate disposition by the Supreme Court of the petition for certiorari, the defendant has filed with this court on May 1, 1943, a petition for the allowance of an appeal direct to the Supreme Court of the United States under Title 18 of the United States Code Annotated, Section 681.

The question of whether this appeal should be allowed is now before this court. After full consideration of 'the petition and of the law pertaining thereto, the court denies the petition upon two grounds: First, the statute upon which the appeal is based is not now in effect, having been repealed; Second, assuming that the statute is in effect, the time limit specified therein for the filing of a petition for appeal has expired and consequently under the express terms of the statute no appeal can be allowed.

The statute under which this petition is filed was originally enacted on February 6, 1889, c. 113, sec. 6, 25 Stat. 656, and provided that in all criminal cases in the federal courts punishable by death the final judgment of the court shall be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States upon writ of error, the writ of error being allowed as of right. This Act was the first one granting authority to the Supreme Court to review a criminal case by appeal or writ of error. United States v. Rider, 163 U.S. 132, 138, 16 S.Ct. 983, 41 L.Ed. 101. At that time, there were no Circuit Courts of Appeals in existence, and Congress naturally provided that in solemn criminal cases punishable by death the defendant could obtain a review of his case by the Supreme Court — -the only reviewing court then in existence — as of right.

The Circuit Courts of Appeals, as intermediate appellate courts, were established by Act of March 3, 1891, 26 Stat. 826. Section 4 of this Act provided that all appeals from District Courts should be subject to review by the Supreme Court or Circuit Courts of Appeals, therein established, “as is hereinafter provided.” Section 5 of the Act enlarged the reviewing power of the Supreme Court, providing:

“That appeals or writs of error may be taken from the district courts or from the [898]*898existing circuit courts direct to the Supreme Court in the following cases:
“In any case in which the jurisdiction of the court is in issue; in such cases the question of jurisdiction alone shall be certified to the Supreme Court from the court below for decision.
“From the final sentences and decrees in prize causes.
"In cases of conviction of a capital or otherwise infamous crime. [Italics added.]
“In any case that involves the construction or application of the Constitution of the United States.
“In any case in which the constitutionality of any law of the United States, or the validity or construction of any treaty made under its authority, is drawn in question.
“In any case in which the constitution or law of a State is claimed to be in contravention of the Constitution of the United States.
“Nothing in this act shall affect the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in cases appealed from the highest court of a State, nor the construction of the statute providing for review of such cases.”

Then, having enlarged the reviewing power of the Supreme Court by the Act of 1891 to include cases of conviction of any infamous crime, Congress on January 20, 1897, amended the statute to eliminate the words “or otherwise infamous” and again to restrict the reviewing power to capital crimes, 29 Stat. 492.

Next, by the Act of March 3, 1911, 36 Stat. 1087, Congress passed “An Act To codify, revise, and amend the laws relating to the judiciary”, which is the original Judicial Code. Section 238 of this Act set forth verbatim the provisions of Section 5 of the 1891 Act, supra, relating to direct appeals to the Supreme Court from the District Courts, except the provision for appeal “In cases of conviction of a capital or otherwise infamous crime”, from which the words “or otherwise infamous” had been deleted by the 1897 Act. Jurisdiction was conferred upon the Circuit Courts of Appeals to review final decisions of the district courts in all cases other than those in which a direct review could be had in the Supreme Court (Section 128).

The 1911 Act by Section 297 repealed all other Acts or parts thereof in so far as they were embraced within and superseded by it. While the repealing provision did not expressly refer to Section 5 of the 1891 Act, the verbatim repetition of its provisions for. direct review by the Supreme Court with the single omission of the clause pertaining to capital crimes shows clearly the intention of Congress to repeal that clause and to transfer jurisdiction for direct review of capital cases from the Supreme Court to the Circuit Courts of Appeals. Furthermore, the repealing section of the 1911 Act expressly repealed the 1897 Act, supra, which limited review in the Supreme Court to capital and not “otherwise infamous” crimes; and this could have no meaning unless it is interpreted as repealing the clause of the 1891 Act as modified by the 1897 Act and thus removing capital crimes from the kinds of District Court cases directly reviewable in the Supreme Court.

The conclusion that Congress intended to repeal the clause is reinforced by the statement to that effect in the Senate Report of the Special Joint Committee on Revision and Codification of the Laws of the United States (Senate Report No. 388, 61st Cong., 2d Sess.), setting forth the proposed changes to be made under the bill (S. 7031). Section 225 thereof was identical to Section 238 of the 1911 Act as passed. With reference to the section, the report states (p. 77):

“The only change made in the section is in striking out the words ‘in cases of conviction of a capital crime’. The effect of this is to take from the Supreme Court jurisdiction in capital cases and to transfer the jurisdiction it now possesses to the circuit courts of appeals.”

The conclusion is inescapable that jurisdiction in the Supreme Court to review directly convictions in the District Court for capital crimes was eliminated and the statute under which the present petition is filed repealed in so far as it provided for such review.

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Related

Stephan v. United States
319 U.S. 423 (Supreme Court, 1943)
United States v. Stephan
50 F. Supp. 448 (E.D. Michigan, 1943)

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Bluebook (online)
49 F. Supp. 897, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-stephan-mied-1943.