by John Marshall Harlan, Pettit v. Walshe — Opinion of the Court
“ That view would largely defeat the object of our extradition treaties by ignoring the fact that for nearly all crimes and misdemeanors the laws of the states, and not the enactments of Congress, must be looked to for the definition of the offense. There are no common-law crimes of the United States, and, indeed, in most of the states the criminal law has been recast in statutes, the common law being resorted to in aid of definition. ”
