by John Marshall Harlan, Bergemann v. Backer — Opinion of the Court
“ If an indictment in a state court, under statutes not void under the constitution of the United States, be defective, according to the essential principles of criminal procedure, an error in rendering judgment upon it-even if the accused at the trial objected to it as insufficient-should not be made the basis of jurisdiction in a court of the United States to issue a writ of habeas corpus. ”
by John Marshall Harlan, Bergemann v. Backer — Opinion of the Court
“ And by the forty-fifth section of the criminal procedure act it is provided: 'In any indictment for murder or manslaughter it shall not be necessary to set forth the manner in which, or the means by which the death of the deceased was caused, but it shall be sufficient in every indictment for murder to charge that the defendant did willfully, feloniously, and of his malice aforethought kill and murder the deceased ”
