Samuel Freeman Miller

“ Public justice must, therefore, be defeated, as all will agree, if the error cannot be corrected that the prisoner would be entitled to a discharge on habeas corpus, as every sentence in a criminal case is an entirety, so that if any part of it is unauthorized by law the whole sentence is illegal. ”

“ One trial and verdict, says Cooley, must as a general rule protect the accused against any subsequent accusation of the same offence, whether the verdict be for or against him, and whether or not the court is satisfied with the finding, if it be in his favor and he was put upon trial before a court of competent jurisdiction and upon an indictment which is sufficient in form and substance to sustain the conviction. ”

“ Any rule which will peremptorily discharge a prisoner, legally convicted of an offence, whether it be a felony or misdemeanor, merely because the court committed an error in pronouncing the sentence, cannot be a sound one, nor is it believed that it will be satisfactory to any who have much acquaintance with the administration of criminal justice in the Federal courts. ”

“ Civil society, however, could not exist if it were permitted that crimes should go unpunished, nor is it true that the writ of habeas corpus was ever intended to operate as the means of delivering a prisoner from his imprisonment if he had been duly indicted, convicted, and sentenced, and is in prison by virtue of a lawful conviction under a valid indictment and a legal sentence passed in pursuance of a constitutional law of the jurisdiction where the offence was committed. ”

“ Legislation to provide for a bill of exceptions in criminal cases or to authorize a writ of error is certainly unnecessary if a petition for habeas corpus, well filled with the affidavits of the jurors who tried the case and of the counsel who conducted the defence, will answer the purpose, as it will be easy to strengthen such proofs, if need be, by the opinions of chamber counsel and by the affidavits of sympathizing bystanders and of the short-hand writers employed for the occasion. ”

“ By the fourteenth section of the Judiciary Act it is provided, among other things, that either of the justices of the Supreme Court as well as the judges of the District Courts shall have power to grant writs of habeas corpus for the purpose of an inquiry into the cause of commitment, provided that writs of habeas corpus shall in no case extend to persons in jail unless where they are in custody under or by color of the authority of the United States, or are committed for trial before some court of the same, or are necessary to be brought into court to testify. ”

“ Doubt cannot be entertained that each of the twelve counts of the indictment is well drawn, and that they embody an offence which is legally defined in the aforesaid act of Congress. By the record it also appears that a jury was duly impanelled on the fifteenth of October in the same year, for the trial of the defendant upon that indictment, and that the jury, on the twenty-second of the same month, returned their verdict that the defendant is guilty, and that the value of the said mail-bags is less than twenty-five dollars. ”

“ Great difficulty exists in regarding a sentence in a criminal case, which has been vacated and set aside, as a part of the record, and it seems past belief that any one should for a moment contend that the certificate of the clerk that he had received the amount of fine from a prisoner in execution should be regarded as any part of the record in the present case. ”

“ These decisions, some of which go to the extent of denying all right to amend or change the judgment after it becomes a part of the roll, are inapplicable to our system, where a judgment roll, strictly speaking, is no part, or, at least, not a necessary part of our system of judicial proceedings. In most, if not all, our courts a minute-book, or a record of the proceedings of the court, is kept, and is the appropriate repository of all the orders and judgments of the court ”

“ The protection against the action of the same court in inflicting punishment twice must surely be as necessary, and as clearly within the maxim, as protection from chances or danger of a second punishment on a second trial. ”

“ Based on that decision this court said, in the case of Basset v. United States, [32] that the control of the court over its own judgments during the term is of every day's practice, which is a proposition supported by the highest authority. [33]
Courts of common law possessed the power to vacate their judgments during the term in which they were rendered, and the rule is still the same in all courts exercising jurisdiction in common-law cases, whether civil or criminal; and the remark is equally correct whether applied to a State or Federal court. ”

“ While still in custody under this proceeding he was arraigned on an indictment for the murder of two persons who were in the house when it was burned. To this he pleaded the former conviction in bar, and the Supreme Court held it a good plea. It is to be observed that the punishment for arson could not technically extend either to life or limb; but the Supreme Court founded its argument on the provision of the constitution of New Jersey, which embodies the precise language of the Federal Constitution. ”

“ Execution seldom or never immediately follows the sentence, but the sentence is that the prisoner be remanded to the place whence he came, and that he be there imprisoned until the day fixed for his execution, which shows that the term of imprisonment from the date of the sentence to the time of execution is an essential part of the sentence. ”

“ The force of this proposition cannot be better illustrated than by what occurs in the present case if the second judgment is carried into effect. The law authorizes imprisonment not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars. ”

“ Cook v. Wood, 24 Illinois, 296; Taylor v. Lusk, 9 Iowa, 445.↑ Cooley on Constitutional Limitations, p. 325.↑ 2 Story on Constitution, § 1787; Vaux v. Brook, 4 Reports, 39, b; Fox v. State, 5 Howard, 432; United States v. Marigold, 9 Id. 560; Moore v. State, 14 Id. 20.↑ United States v. Haskell, 4 Washington, 410; United States v. Perez, 9 Wheaton, 579.↑ 2 Graham & Waterman on New Trials, c. 2, pp. 51-135.↑ Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 2d ed. 327.↑ McKee v. People, 32 New York, 239.↑ 4 Blackstone's Commentaries, by Cooley, 335, note 5 ”

“ Queen v. Silversides, 3 Q. B. 406; King v. The Queen, 7 Id. 795; Holt v. Regina, 2 Dowling & Lowndes, 774; Ex parte Page, 49 Missouri, 291; Holland v. Queen, 2 Jebb & Symes, 357; O'Leary v. People, 4 Parker's Criminal Reports, 187; Shepherd v. ”