Melville Fuller

“ The seventh error is to the effect that as the Penal Code of Texas (article 607) provided 'if the jury shall find any person guilty of murder they shall also find by their verdict whether it is of the first or second degree; and if any person shall plead guilty to an indictment for murder, a jury shall be summoned to find of what degree of murder he is guilty;' and the Code of Criminal Procedure, (article 676,) that 'the jury are the exclusive judges of the facts in the case, but not of the law in any case. ”

“ A writ of error to review the judgment of the highest tribunal of a state stands on far different ground, and cannot be maintained in the absence of a federal question giving us jurisdiction. The state courts rendered no decision in favor of the validity of a statute of or authority exercised under the state, drawn in question on the ground of repugnancy to the laws of the United States ”

“ Texas
Plaintiff in error was indicted by the grand jury of Tarrant county, Tex., for that in that county, on July 6, A. D. 1889, he 'with force and arms did unlawfully, and with his express malice aforethought, kill and murder one B. C. Evans with a pistol, contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state,' and, having been arraigned and pleaded not guilty, was tried, found guilty of murder in the first degree, his punishment fixed by the jury at death, and judgment rendered accordingly. ”