Criminal Procedure Commons^™

Hearsay And Conspiracy: A Reexamination Of The Co-Conspirators' Exception To The Hearsay Rule, Joseph H. Levie

Michigan Law Review

The expansion of the law of conspiracy and the increasing number of prosecutions for its violation have been much commented on lately. Many kinds of anti-social conduct directed principally against the public welfare are now frequently punished by prosecution for conspiracy instead of prosecution for the substantive offense. Conspiracy is an ideal way to deal with organized crime and has been used extensively against quasi-treasonous activities. Similarly the Sherman Act's criminal sanctions are primarily couched in terms of conspiracy and the civil conspiracy action for divestiture or dissolution is the usual method of enforcing the antitrust laws. This emphasis on …

Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Federal Immunity Statute Applicable To State Court, Raymond R. Trombadore S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

ln response to a summons, petitioner appeared to testify before a congressional committee investigating crime, and confessed to having run a gambling business in Maryland. This confession was used in the criminal court of Baltimore to convict petitioner of conspiring to violate the state's anti-lottery laws. The conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, which rejected petitioner's contention that use of the committee testimony was forbidden by a federal statute which provides that no testimony given by a witness in congressional inquiries "shall be used as evidence in any criminal proceeding against him in any court." On …

Constitutional Law - Judicial Powers - Legality Of The Grand Jury Report, Alan Reeve Hunt S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

On December 2, 1952, a federal grand jury for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, in a "presentment" made to that court, took the State Department severely to task for what it considered to be a conspicuous failure in handling the problem of subversive employees, United States citizens, at the United Nations. It further charged the State Department with impeding the grand jury's progress in attempting to fix responsibility for the failure upon certain State Department officials. On October 11, 1951, the Camden County grand jury presented to the Superior Court of New Jersey …

Constitutional Law-Legislative-Power To Reduce Grade Of Criminal Offense In Order To Avoid Jury Trial, Chester F. Relyea S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A complaint was made in the Municipal Court of Hoboken against the defendant charging that he had willfully committed an assault and battery by spitting on another, in violation of the Disorderly Persons Law, which states: "Any person who commits an assault or an assault and battery is a disorderly person." The defendant moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that the statute violated his constitutional right to prosecution by indictment and trial by jury. The municipal court denied the motion. On certification to the New Jersey Supreme Court, held, the statute did not wrongfully deny defendant a …

Criminal Procedure - Standing Of The Press To Protest Exclusion Of Public From Criminal Trial By Order Of The Trial Judge, M. Fred Mallender, Ii

Michigan Law Review

Defendant judge, believing that great harm to public morals and decency was to be apprehended from the testimony in the vice trial of Minot F. Jelke, exercised his discretion to exclude the general public including plaintiff newspapers from the court room during the state's case. The family and friends of the accused along with officers of the court, witnesses, and jury were not excluded. The plaintiffs applied for a writ of prohibition to restrain the defendant from enforcing his order. The court denied the application on the grounds that the defendant judge had the power to make the exclusion order …

Criminal Procedure - Juries - Effect Of Disqualified Juror On The Verdict, Joseph M. Kortenhof S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of selling whiskey and imprisoned in the county jail. After the time for appeal had elapsed he discovered that one jury member had been an unpardoned convict. In a habeas corpus proceeding the defendant urged that the judgment was void and subject to collateral attack. The county court refused to discharge the defendant. On appeal, held, affirmed. Discovery after the verdict that a convict sat on the jury, contrary to statute, gives an automatic right to a new trial. However, since the defect only renders the verdict voidable and not void it must be challenged within …

Constitutional Law - Public Trial In Criminal Cases, Carl S. Krueger S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The criminal trial has been traditionally open to the public in Anglo-Saxon procedure, as it was in Roman and other civilized societies of an earlier time. The public trial of today, however, has been subjected to considerable criticism on the ground that there is a tendency for criminal trials to degenerate into public spectacles, frequently interrupting the orderly procedure of justice, and not infrequently actually prejudicing the accused. If no useful purpose is served by the presence of the idle public during the deadly serious determination of guilt or innocence, should not the judge, subject to the right of admittance …

Criminal Procedure-Extradition For Non-Support Under Section 6 Of The Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, David D. Dowd, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner had been divorced while residing in the State of California and ordered to pay $30 per month to his wife for the support of three minor children. After moving to New Mexico he defaulted in the payments. The Governor of California requested the extradition of the petitioner under section 6 of the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act to answer the charge of failure to provide for minor children. Petitioner questioned his detention under the order for extradition by seeking a writ of habeas corpus in an original proceeding before the Supreme Court of New Mexico. Held, writ denied. Section …

Constitutional Law-Due Process-Burden Of Proving Insanity As Defense To Crime, Lois H. Hambro S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of first degree murder after having pleaded insanity as a defense to the charge. He appealed to the Supreme Court of Oregon, alleging that the Oregon statute, which required an accused pleading insanity to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it placed on him the burden of proving his inability to premeditate and intend the criminal act. The defendant relied in part on the fact that Oregon is the only state requiring insanity to be proved ''beyond a reasonable doubt," while other states require at most that …

Vanderbilt: Cases And Materials On Modern Procedure And Judicial Administration, Charles W. Joiner

Michigan Law Review

A Review of CASES AND MATERIALS ON MODERN PROCEDURE AND JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION by Arthur T. Vanderbilt.

Constitutional Law-Right To Bail, Robert L. Sandblom S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution provides that "Excessive bail shall not be required . . . ." This clause, as with all of the Bill of Rights, serves as a limitation on the federal government. From a very early date this provision has likewise established a boundary on the discretion of the federal courts in their exercise of criminal jurisdiction. Although this Eighth Amendment provision is a protection against federal encroachment, it does not limit the powers of states, arguments of individual Justices to the contrary notwithstanding.

In the recent Supreme Court decision of Stack v. Boyle, this …

Evidence-Confessions-Mcnabb Rule Not Applicable Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Harry T. Baumann S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, detained on a vagrancy charge in Texas, voluntarily confessed to a homicide committed in Nebraska. Upon his return to the latter state, the defendant repeated his confession and was subsequently arraigned, having been in custody for twenty-five days. The confessions were introduced at the trial and a conviction of manslaughter followed. Defendant, failing to gain a reversal in the state court, sought review by the United States Supreme Court, charging that a failure to arraign the defendant promptly in breach of local statutes was a want of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. On certiorari, held, affirmed, Justices …

Transfer Of Federal Offenses Committed In More Than One District Or Division, Lester B. Orfield

Michigan Law Review

Rule 21 (b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides: "The court upon motion of the defendant shall transfer the proceeding as to him to another district or division, if it appears from the indictment or information or from a bill of particulars that the offense was committed in more than one district or division and if the court is satisfied that in the interest of justice the proceeding should be transferred to another district or division in which the commission of the offense is charged."

Constitutional Law-Evidence-Use Of Illegally Obtained Evidence And Due Process Of Law, Allan Neef S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

It is fundamental, even in a federal system, that a state be free to regulate the procedure of its courts in accordance with its own conceptions of proper policy, subject only to constitutional limitations safeguarding individuals from arbitrary action by the state. In the United States this constitutional protection is two-fold-both state and federal constitutions acting as limitations on state action. As a result, a problem arises as to what extent the federal courts can, in the enforcement of federal constitutional limitations, override state criminal procedures and the policies underlying them. It is clear that the states have, by virtue …

Constitutional Law-Fifth Amendment-Privilege Against Self-Incrimination By Admission, Or Knowledge, Of Communist Activities, Morris G. Shanker

Michigan Law Review

ln response to a subpoena, petitioner appeared as a witness before a United States district court grand jury. Several questions concerning· her knowledge and association with the Communist Party were put to her. In each case, she refused to answer the questions, claiming the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. For refusal to answer these same questions when brought before the district court, petitioner was adjudged to be in contempt of court. The court of appeals affirmed the holdings, and certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court. Held, judgment reversed. The Smith Act makes it unlawful to advocate knowingly the desirability …

Habeas Corpus-Jurisdiction Of Federal Courts To Review Jurisdiction Of Military Tribunals When The Prisoner Is Physically Confined Outside The United States, Willis B. Snell S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The question of the power of federal courts to issue the writ of habeas corpus for a prisoner confined outside the territorial United States has not as yet been completely answered. Until recently, there were few instances in which anyone was confined outside the United States under the authority of the United States. However, during and since World War II, American military tribunals have exercised power over citizens and aliens, civilians and military personnel, in many parts of the world, and especially in Germany and Japan. Because of this extended use of military tribunals, the question of the power of …

Criminal Law-Confessions And Due Process, Harold G. Christensen S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was arrested on suspicion of robbery and the next day confessed the theft of a car owned by a person who had been found dead a month previous. On the following evening, after a four and one-half hour "interview" with two F.B.I. agents, he "broke down and confessed the killing." Other confessions were made the next day and finally, after a detention of five days from the day of arrest, petitioner was taken before a committing magistrate. He was found guilty of murder at a trial in which these confessions were used against him. He sued out a writ …

Habeas Corpus-Jurisdiction Of Federal Courts To Review Jurisdiction Of Military Tribunals When The Prisoner Is Physically Confined Outside The United States, Willis B. Snell S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The question of the power of federal courts to issue the writ of habeas corpus for a prisoner confined outside the territorial United States has not as yet been completely answered. Until recently, there were few instances in which anyone was confined outside the United States under the authority of the United States. However, during and since World War II, American military tribunals have exercised power over citizens and aliens, civilians and military personnel, in many parts of the world, and especially in Germany and Japan. Because of this extended use of military tribunals, the question of the power of …

Criminal Law-Confessions And Due Process, Harold G. Christensen S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was arrested on suspicion of robbery and the next day confessed the theft of a car owned by a person who had been found dead a month previous. On the following evening, after a four and one-half hour "interview" with two F.B.I. agents, he "broke down and confessed the killing." Other confessions were made the next day and finally, after a detention of five days from the day of arrest, petitioner was taken before a committing magistrate. He was found guilty of murder at a trial in which these confessions were used against him. He sued out a writ …

Military Habeas Corpus: Ii, Seymour W. Wurfel

Michigan Law Review

The doctrine is well established that habeas corpus is an extraordinary remedy which will not ordinarily lie where the law has provided another remedy. The numerical pressure of habeas corpus petitions by all types of prisoners in recent years has reached such proportions as to constitute a major problem in the administration of justice. It has engaged the administrative consideration of judicial officers and been the subject of legislation both federal and state. The Chief Justice of the United States in an address before the American Bar Association on September 7, 1949 strikingly stated the problem and urged "that something …

Constitutional Law-Fourteenth Amendment-Discrimination In Selection Of Grand Jurors, Alan C. Boyd S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant's conviction of murder was affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which rejected defendant's claim that discrimination in selection of the indicting grand jury had violated his constitutional rights. Defendant pointed out that the Negro proportion of grand jurors had uniformly been less than the ratio of Negroes to the total population of the county, and that on the past twenty-one lists the commissioners had consistently limited the number of Negroes to not more than one on each grand jury. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, reversed. Limitation of the number of Negroes on …

Military Habeas Corpus: I, Seymour W. Wurfel

Michigan Law Review

The mobilization of over twelve million persons into the armed forces in World War II made necessary a vastly expanded resort to court martial proceedings to enforce the criminal law. The trial by military tribunals of civilian employees of the military establishment in overseas areas and of prisoners of war and war crimes defendants added substantially to the number confined by military authority. On January 31, 1950, there remained in federal penal institutions 2508 prisoners serving civilian type felony sentences imposed by military tribunals. Before World War II, legal problems arising from attempts to invoke the remedy of habeas corpus …

Appeal And Error-Significance Of Denial Of Certiorari As Precedent By United States Supreme Court, Edward W. Rothe S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Respondents were found guilty of contempt of court for broadcasting dispatches concerning a person about to be tried on a charge of murder. The convictions were reversed on constitutional grounds by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, relying upon certain decisions of the United States Supreme Court. The state sought a writ of certiorari on the ground that the Maryland court had misconceived the rulings of the Supreme Court. Although the application for certiorari was denied, Justice Frankfurter took occasion to write an opinion stating that the denial of the writ meant only that fewer than four members of the …

Constitutional Law-Fourth Amendment-Search Without A Warrant Incident To Arrest, G. B. Myers S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Respondent was convicted of selling and of possessing and concealing forged and altered stamps of the United States with intent to defraud. The primary evidence of "possessing and concealing" consisted of numerous forged and altered stamps taken from respondent's one room office by Federal officers immediately after his arrest. The stamps were the product of a one and one-half hour search of the desk, safe and file cabinets in the office. The officers, though without a search warrant for the premises, made the arrest pursuant to a valid warrant. Respondent protested the search, and this protest was renewed by motions …

Soviet Socialism And Due Process Of Law, John N. Hazard

Michigan Law Review

An eminent American legal philosopher has recently written in the pages of this Review that Soviet leaders have discovered some ancient truths-namely, that some respect must be paid, sooner or later, to the principle of legality. In the light of various memoirs and disclosures of persons who have experienced or studied life in Soviet labor camps, such a statement invites incredulity. Can it have any basis in fact? Can it be possible that there is a dualism in Soviet practice, with one set of experiences supporting the conclusion that there is a trend toward legality and another set of experiences …

Judgments - Double Jeopardy - Res Judicata - Effect Of Prior Conviction Or Acquittal On Subsequent Suit For Statutory Penalty Or Forfeiture, Edward W. Rothe S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The case of United States v. One De Soto Sedan has again focused attention on some of the perplexing problems raised by the statutory imposition of both criminal and civil sanctions for the same wrongful act. The court held that an acquittal in a criminal prosecution for possessing liquor on which no federal tax had been paid was a bar to a civil in rem proceeding to forfeit claimant's car as having been used in the removal, deposit and concealment of the same liquor with intent to defraud the United States of taxes. Since the two proceedings involved the same …

Constitutional Law-Due Process-Right Of Condemned Prisoner To A Hearing On Claim Of Supervening Insanity, Robert P. Griffin S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was convicted of murder in a Georgia court and sentenced to die by electrocution. He made application to the governor to postpone execution on the ground that he had become insane after conviction. The governor, acting under authority of a state statute, appointed three physicians who conducted an examination of petitioner and found him sane. Thereupon, petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in a state court contending that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment entitled him to a hearing on his insanity claim before a judicial or administrative tribunal at which he could …

Witnesses--Competence Of Defendant's Spouse As Witness For The Prosecution, William R. Worth S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, on trial for the offense of transporting across state lines a sum of money exceeding $5,000 feloniously obtained by fraud, was convicted largely through the testimony of his victim. The fraud charged consisted of a lightning courtship and hasty marriage, closely followed by the disappearance of the new husband along with the entire estate of the too-gullible bride. Over the objection of the defendant, his wife was permitted to testify to the swindle practiced upon her. After conviction, he filed a motion for a new trial, contending that it was error to permit a wife to testify against her …

Criminal Law-Confessions Obtained Prior To Commitment-What Constitutes Unreasonable Delay, B. J. George, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Defendants were arrested on suspicion of murder and questioned by police. Defendants confessed after being held incommunicado for some hours during the night, but were not arraigned until the following morning. The confessions were admitted in evidence and defendants found guilty. On appeal, held, affirmed. There had not been an unreasonable delay in producing defendants before a commissioner, because the length of time in hours was not unreasonable and because committing magistrates are not available late at night. Garner v. United States, (App. D.C., 1949) 174 F. (2d) 499.

Mr. Justice Murphy And Civil Rights, Thurgood Marshall

Michigan Law Review

There is constant danger that the unpopularity of an individual, or of the group of which he is a member, will be reflected in dealings with his rights by his neighbors or by the organized community. In America today this bias is most likely to stern from differences of race, origin, nationality, or religious or political belief. Prejudice may victimize an entire group or any of its members. Any charge of shocking or anti-social conduct against one who is already thus unpopular increases the likelihood of unfair treatment. Not only private citizens, but legislators, judges and administrative officers of government …