Melville Fuller

“ As we observed in Jacobi's Case, we cannot interfere with the action of the highest court of a state in adhering to the usual course of its judgments, and we have frequently ruled that this court cannot review the final judgments of the state courts on the ground that the validity of state enactments under the Constitution of the United States had been adjudged, where those courts 'did nothing more than decline to pass upon the Federal question because not raised in the trial court, as required by the state practice.' Erie R. Co. ”

“ Errors were so assigned, but the only one of them which referred to the constitutionality of the act was the third, stating that 'the court erred in refusing to declare that the law under which the defendant was convicted was unconstitutional and void.' This related to the state Constitution, and the court so treated it, and confined its decision to the errors specified. Whether it was obliged to do this is not material, as the court in any event proceeds on the record of the trial court for errors committed there. Exceptions in criminal cases occupy the same footing as in civil. ”

“ By rule of division No. 2, in criminal cases, printed statements containing assignment of errors and brief of points of argument were required, or, in prosecutions in forma pauperis, the same in typewriting. 160 Mo. appx. ”