Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons^™

Crimes-Defense Of Property

Michigan Law Review

May one under any circumstances kill in order to prevent the loss or destruction of his property? By this question is meant killing solely to prevent loss or destruction of property; necessary homicide in self-defense is unquestionably justifiable. Much of the confusion on the question whether one may take life if necessary in defense of property is due, it seems, to a persistent tendency to treat the two questions as the same. It hardly needs statement that the body of law pertinent to self-defense is totally distinct fundamentally from that pertaining to one's powers in defense of his chattels. Practically, …

Police Legislation Under Federal Powers

Michigan Law Review

A recent case decided by the United States Supreme Court United States v. Daugherty (Jan. 4, 1926) 46 Su. Ct. 156 (Adv. Opn. 303) sustained a conviction and sentence under the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act, 38 Stat. 785, for "making unauthorized sales of cocaine to three different persons on different days" The indictment was in three counts, one covering each sale involved. The sentence imposed was "five years on each of said three counts. * * * * Said term of imprisonment to run consecutively and not concurrently."

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

International Law--Treaties--Are The Rum Tretaties Self-Executing?

Michigan Law Review

On May 22, 1924, the United States concluded a treaty with Great Britain by which the latter power agreed that it would raise no objection to the search and seizure of its ships by American authorities on the high seas, provided there was reason to suspect that such ships were committing or attempting to commit an offense against United States laws, and provided the search and seizure were made within an hour's run of the American coast. In return the United States conceded to British ships the privilege of bringing into its ports liquor in bond in their ship stores. …

What Is An Unreasonable Search?

Michigan Law Review

In Carroll v. United States (1925) 267 U. S. 132, 45 Sup. Ct. 280, the Supreme Court held that there may be a reasonable search of an automobile without a search warrant. The recent case of Agnello v. United States (Oct. 12, 1925) 46 Sup. Ct. 4, goes far in the opposite direction with reference to the search of a dwelling house. In the latter case several defendants were convicted of conspiracy to violate the Harrison Drug Act, a felony under the federal law. Two government revenue agents had negotiated with defendants Alba and Centorino in the home of Alba …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

The Effect Of Martial Law Upon The Soldier's Liability To The Citizen

Michigan Law Review

The recent case of Bishop v. Vandercook, 228 Mich. 299, raises a group of problems of grave importance, seldom discussed in the courts. Can martial law ever exist under our constitutional form of government, so that a soldier becomes privileged, for the time being, to invade the interests of private citizens in a way which the ordinary police powers would not warrant? When may such extraordinary law and extraordinary privilege exist? Is a soldier ever justified in acting under orders given by his superior under supposed martial law when martial law for some reason is not in force?

Search Of Automobile Without Warrant--When Reasonable

Michigan Law Review

The enforcement of the National Prohibition Act has been responsible for raising the search and seizure question to a new height of importance. By Section 26 of that act, any officer discovering any person in the transportation of intoxicating liquors is to seize all such liquors being transported contrary to law. Obviously to secure a search warrant is impossible in the very nature of things the automobile, adapted to speed, is gone long before a warrant could be secured. And the employment of the automobile in the transportation of liquor is carried to such an extent that search and seizure …

Prohibition And The Doctrine Of The Weeks Case, Thomas E. Atkinson

Michigan Law Review

One of the most disputed present day questions is whether evidence obtained in violation of constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures should be admissible. The case of Weeks v. United States is perhaps the leading authority upon the proposition that evidence procured by officers through unreasonable search is not admissible. The holding may be justified upon how theories, vis., (1) that the admission of the evidence substantially violates the rule against self-incrimination in the Fifth Amendment, (2) that the exclusion of the evidence is the only practical means of enforcing the guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Crimes-Arrest-Reasonable Cause To Believe

Michigan Law Review

The admission of evidence was objected to, in a recent case, on the ground that it had been illegally secured. Officers had arrested the defendant without a warrant, on a charge of illegally transporting liquor. He was in fact guilty of the offense for which arrested, but contended that the evidence secured by the arrest could not be used. The circuit court of appeals phrased the issue thus : ''Was there probable cause for the officers to believe (that the felony was being committed), or were the facts sufficient to give rise merely to a suspicion thereof? If the former, …

Constitutional Law-Restricting Liberty Without Due Process Of Law-Extorted Confessions

Michigan Law Review

Of recent years the administration of criminal justice has increased many-fold, owing to the constantly increasing size of our great cities and the period of growing social unrest in which we find ourselves. Public opinion has demanded a more effective mode of dealing with those who break the law with seeming impunity. In view of this attitude it is only natural that in a particularly baffling crime the police should seek to obtain some clue of the criminals by grilling suspects. This has resulted in many cases in acts which to say the least are over-zealous. In a recent case …

Resistance To Illegal Arrest

Michigan Law Review

Precisely how far an individual may go in resisting an illegal arrest either by an officer or a private citizen, is a question which is of vital importance to the citizen and police officials and one which the courts have not definitely settled. Personal liberty is so esteemed that under certain circumstances one should have the right to resist, to some extent at least, any unlawful interference therewith. But as Beccaria says in his CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS, "It is a false idea of utility which thinks more of the inconvenience of individuals than of the general inconvenience". Translation by James …

Fishing Expeditions By Commissions, John Leland Mechem

Michigan Law Review

Can Congress, under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, delegate visitorial powers over private corporations engaged in interstate commerce, to the extent of granting unlimited and unrestricted examination and inspection of private papers and effects, with the right to copy them?

Arrest Without A Warrant, Horace L. Wilgus

Michigan Law Review

Aiding in Arrest: An officer having authority to make an arrest may, orally or otherwise, call upon any citizen to aid him, and in emergencies, such as riots, mobs, etc., may raise the posse comitatus, or power of the county to help him; or the military force of the county may be called out if necessary. It is immaterial whether the officer acts under a warrant, or under his authority without a warrant; or whether the offense is a felony, or a misdemeanor, or an original arrest or recapture; or whether the person arrested is innocent or guilty, …

Arrest Without A Warrant, Horace L. Wilgus

Michigan Law Review

We shall now consider the circumstances under which a person (D) may be arrested for treason (T), or felony (F), or breach of the peace (BP), or other misdemeanor (M), or breach of a city ordinance (BO), without a warrant, by a private citizen (C), or a peace officer (O), prior to, at the time of, or after the commission of the offense. It is assumed that O acts within his territorial jurisdiction.

Arrest Without A Warrant, Horace L. Wilgus

Michigan Law Review

The word arrest comes from the Latin through the French, and literally means to stop, stay or restrain. In law it relates to restraints upon a person's liberty of locomotion, movement from place to place. To require one to keep her mouth shut is not an arrest, even if wrongful. Every detention or "confinement of the person is an imprisonment, whether it be in a common prison, or private house, or in the stocks," or in the open street or elsewhere. Where codes define false imprisonment "as the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another," the gist of the …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Search And Seizure--Reasonableness

Michigan Law Review

Prohibition has rendered more than ever acute the problem of law .enforcement. Search for and seizure of contraband liquor as forfeited to the state is a very essential part of enforcement, and there is immediately raised the question: What constitutes a legal search and seizure?

The recent decision of the Michigan Supreme Court in People v. Case (Mich., 1922), 190 N. W. 289, may well serve as a starting point. There, officers without permission and without warrant entered defendant's automobile truck as it stood upon a public fair-ground, searched and found liquor therein, and arrested defendant when he appeared and …

Effect Of Improper Acts After A Lawful Arrest

Michigan Law Review

For our purpose we shall not consider the results which may follow an attempt to arrest, lawful or unlawful, where the party flees or resists; nor those following an illegal arrest which is effected without resistance. In the case of an attempt to arrest there is no end of possible situations and the rules of law are legion; an illegal arrest without resistance renders the officer liable only in damages for false imprisonment, McCullough v. Greenfield, 133 Mich. 463. While misunderstandings between the parties are less likely to occur, and the rights and duties of each are more easily …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Due Process And Punishment, Clarence E. Laylin, Alonzo H. Tuttle

Michigan Law Review

To threaten such a man with punishment," wrote Sir James .LFitzjames Stephen,' "is like threatening to punish a man for not lifting a weight which he cannot move."

New Probation Law Of Michigan, Charles B. Collingwood

Michigan Law Review

Nothing connected with the work of a circuit judge demands more thoughtful consideration or occasions him more anxiety than the punishment to be meted out to the men and women who have violated the laws of the state. In almost every other matter there is an opportunity for review by an appellate court. Where litigants differ widely from the decision of the circuit court it is altogether likely that there will be an appeal and the matter will be finally adjudicated by another court. But from the sentence given to one who has plead guilty, or has been found guilty …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Army and Navy--Enlistment of Minor--Discharge; arrest--Authority to Arrest Without Warrant--"In His Presence"--"Within His Immediate Knowledge"; Bankruptcy--The Right of a Wife to Recover an Equitable Claim Against Her Husband's Estate in Bankruptcy; Bankruptcy--Title of Trustee as Against Unrecorded Contract of Conditional Sale--Effect of Amendment of 1910; Banks and Banking--Entry of Deposit for Collection--Insolvency of Banks Agent; Bills and Notes--Stipulations for Attorney's Fees--Validity; Corporations--Sale by Corporation to Sole Stockholder--Notice; Criminal Law--Adjournment of Court to House of a Sick Witness; Criminal Law--Error in Admission of Evidence; Damages--Breach of Contract to Carry Dead Body; Damages--Denial of Recovery for Mental Suffering Under Statute; Equity--Equitable Set-Off …

Note And Comment, Clarence E. Eldridge, Ben H. Dewey, Mckee Robison

Michigan Law Review

Limitation of the Amount of the Common Carrier's Liability--Hepburn Act; Surety's Right to Exoneration; Protection of Rights of Bona Fide Purchasers of Personal Property; The Time at Which a Political Aspirant Becomes a Candidate Within the Meaning of the Modern Primary Election Law; When are Letters Written by a Husband to His Wife Not Privileged?

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Aliens - Right to Take Land by Descent - Loss of State's Right to Escheat; Bailment - Liability of Incidental Bailee; Bankruptcy - Preferences - Franchise Tax; Bankruptcy - Transfers Required to be Recorded - Preferences; Bills and Notes - Bona Fide Purchaser - Notice of Want of Power in Transferrer; Bills and Notes - Unrestricted Negotiability of Bills of Lading; Constitutional Law - Commerce Clause - Statute Relating to Interstate Carriers as Employers; Constitutional Law - Indeterminate Sentence Law; Courts - Rules of Property - Stare Decisis; Criminal Law - Exclusion of Public from Trials; Criminal Law - Impeachment …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy--Action by Trustee--Right of Set-Off; Bills and Notes--forged Check--Payment--Recovery Back; Boundaries--Artificial Bodies of Water; Carriers--who are Passengers--Fraud in Securing Carriage; Corporations--Exclusive Privileges--Statutory Construction; Corporations--Penal Offense--Construction of Statute; Costs--change of Venue--Liability of County; Criminal law--Proximate Cause--Deposit of Obscene Matter in the Mail; Damages--Status of Dead Bodies--Mutilation--Mental Suffering; Easements--Adverse Possession--Color of Title; Eminent Domain--Telephone Poles in Highway--No Additional Burden; Equity--Injunction Against Prosecution; Evidence--Aliens--Burden of Proof in Deportation Proceedings; False Imprisonment--Joinder of Causes of Action; Garnishment--Liability of Executor; Homestead--alienation by Widow--Abandonment--Limitation of Actions; Insurance--Interest of Owner in Property--Sole and Unconditional Owner; Insurance--Sale of One Company to Another--rights of Policy-Holders and Agents of the …

Note And Comment, Edwin C. Goddard, Emiliano Gala, Willis Gordon Stoner, Henry M. Bates

Michigan Law Review

Liability of Principal for Mistake or Fraud of Agent; Contracts by Correspondence; The Police Power and city ordinances for the disposal of Garbage; Restriction Upon the Right of a Carrier to Deal in Commodities Transported by It;