Arrest of judgment

“ Exceptions to the opinion of the court—motions in arrest of judgment, or for a new trial, are in most instances, regarded by the popular mind as so many ingenious attempts of the sworn ministers of the law, to open loop-holes of escape for the guilty. ”

“ As to the probable effect of the motion in arrest of judgment, I shall only observe, that no reasonable man would be so eager to possess himself of the invidious power of inflicting punishment, if he were not predetermined to make use of it. ”

“ The jury rendered a verdict of guilty, whereupon it was urged by motion in arrest of judgment that the court was without jurisdiction. The motion was denied and the defendant was sentenced to imprisonment for sixty days and to the payment of a fine of $100. ”

“ No one can be seized except in order to be brought before the officer of police; and no one can be put under arrest or detained except in virtue of a warrant of arrest from the officers of police or from the Executive Directory, in the case of article 145, or an order of arrest either from a tribunal or the foreman of the jury of accusation, or of a decree of accusation from the legislative body in the case where it has authority to pronounce, or of a judicial judgment of condemnation to prison or correctional detention. ”

“ Of course if there is no justification for it a suit for malicious prosecution and false arrest may arise; but most persons who resort to such tactics are "judgment proof" and the civil law has no terrors for them at all. At least fifty persons out of every hundred would gladly pay an unrighteous claim rather than be subjected to the humiliation of arrest, even if their confinement were of the most temporary character. ”

“ By the common law, a warrant for the arrest of a person charged with crime must truly name him, or describe him sufficiently to identify him. If it does not, the officer making the arrest is liable to an action for false imprisonment; and if, in attempting to make the arrest, the officer is killed, this is only manslaughter in the person whose liberty is invaded. ”

“ Thus, by the side of the regular courts of law which prescribe specific penalties for defined offences proved against a man by a regular form of trial, arbitrary governments resort to various extrajudicial forms of arrest, detention, and punishment, depending on their own will and pleasure. ”

“ The statutes of the United States have been framed upon the theory that a person accused of crime shall not, until he has been finally adjudged guilty in the court of last resort, be absolutely compelled to undergo imprisonment or punishment, but may be admitted to bail, not only after arrest and before trial, but after conviction, and pending a writ of error. ”

“ The law of habeas corpus is recognized, by which anyone detained more than twenty-four hours without having his case submitted to the proper authorities may present himself, or be represented by a proxy, before the judge with a complaint, and the judge is bound to investigate the arrest and to decree the liberty of the detained person in case no legal reason for his further detention can be established. ”

“ Such reasonable suspicion of guilt as justifies a grand jury in finding a bill of indictment is sufficient in the one case, but such positive proof as would require the court to enter up judgment and award execution is absolutely necessary in the other. The government demanding a fugitive from justice seeks possession of him for a trial, before a court and jury, of the question of criminality; but the claimant of an alleged fugitive from service seeks possession of him to avoid a trial, before a court and jury, of the question of freedom. ”

“ Inordinate delay between arrest, indictment, and trial may impair a defendant's ability to present an effective defense. But the major evils protected against by the speedy trial guarantee exist quite apart from actual or possible prejudice to an accused's defense. To legally arrest and detain, the Government must assert probable cause to believe the arrestee has committed a crime. ”

“ Every man being presumed innocent until he has been pronounced guilty, if it is thought indispensable to arrest him, all severity that may not be necessary to secure his person ought to be strictly suppressed by law. ”

“ An arrest is a wholly different kind of intrusion upon individual freedom from a limited search for weapons, and the interests each is designed to serve are likewise quite different. An arrest is the initial stage of a criminal prosecution. ”

“ As a general rule no one can be arrested without warrant. To this rule there are certain exceptions either at common law or by statute. At common law a justice of the peace, a sheriff, a coroner, a constable and even a private person, may arrest any one without warrant for a treason, felony or breach of the peace committed, or attempted to be committed, in his presence. ”

“ Any man, whatever may be his place or his employment, other than those to whom the law gives the right of arrest, who shall give, sign, execute or cause to be executed an order or arrest for a citizen, or anyone, who, even in the case of arrest authorised by law, shall conduct, receive, or retain a citizen in a place of detention not publicly and legally designated, and any custodian or jailer who shall contravene the provisions of articles 14 and 15 above, shall be guilty of the crime of arbitrary imprisonment. ”

“ Much complaint is made that persons are often discharged from arrest and imprisonment when their conviction, upon which such imprisonment was ordered, is perfectly correct; the excess of jurisdiction on the part of the court being in enlarging the punishment, or in enforcing it in a different mode or place than that provided by the law. ”

“ It is for this reason that the mere fact of arrest is to most people a conviction of guilt. The witness who had first identified A as only the probable criminal becomes absolutely convinced of it when A is presented to him in stripes, even though he knows that A has been arrested on his own testimony alone. ”

“ The court said: 'The offense was intentionally committed in the presence of the court. When the first blow was struck, that instant the contempt was complete, and jurisdiction attached. It did not depend upon the arrest of the offender, nor upon his being in actual custody, nor even upon his remaining in the presence of the court. When the offense was committed he was in the presence, and, constructively, at least, in the power, of the court. He may by flight escape merited punishment; but that cannot otherwise affect the right or the power of the court. ”

“ It is his duty to decide whether an offense is charged with a view to making or withholding the order of arrest, which when made, becomes the basis of an order of removal of a citizen to the place of trial, which may be many miles distant from his home. Such order is proper only in cases wherein probable cause has been shown to believe the accused guilty of an offense cognizable by the laws of the United States in the proceeding pending against him, and for which he is to answer at the place of indictment. ”

“ An intent to oppose by force any officer of justice on his way to, in, or returning from the execution of the duty of arresting, keeping in custody, or imprisoning any person whom he is lawfully entitled to arrest, keep in custody, or imprison, or the duty of keeping the peace or dispersing an unlawful assembly, provided that the offender has notice that the person killed is such an officer so employed. ”

“ You understand that perjury is a most serious criminal offence?”
145 CHAPTER XIII On the arrest of a man for murder he is taken before the magistrates at the earliest possible opportunity, but only to be formally charged—that is, evidence of arrest is given, and a remand, generally for a week, is asked for and obtained. ”

“ In short, the function of determining that probable cause exists for the arrest of a person accused is only quasi judicial, and not such that, because of its nature, it must necessarily be confided to a strictly judicial officer or tribunal. ”

“ In this country, all arrests are false arrests because it is a statement of intent that all men are innocent until proven guilty by a court of justice! Ergo, we take you into custody whether innocent or guilty and we will permit the judgment of the court to decide your status. ”

“ The power to arrest and commit offenders is contained in 18 U.S.C.A. § 3041, which states that: 'For any offense against the United States, the offender may, by any justice or judge of the United States, * * * be arrested and imprisoned, or bailed, as the case may be, for trial before such court of the United States as by law has cognizance of the offense.' (Italics added.) ”

“ Arrest is a public act that may seriously interfere with the defendant's liberty, whether he is free on bail or not, and that may disrupt his employment, drain his financial resources, curtail his associations, subject him to public obloquy, and create anxiety in him, his family and his friends. ”

“ It was his duty to submit to arrest at the hand of any officer or any citizen, and whoever engaged in criminal purpose to assist him in resisting that arrest had entered upon the execution of a wrongful act, of a character that, if the arrest was attempted to be executed, and resistance offered, it might result in death ”

“ Whether the circuit court would have had the power at a subsequent term, or at a subsequent day of the same term, to order his arrest and imprisonment for the contempt, without first causing him to be brought into its presence, or without making reasonable efforts by rule or attachment to bring him into court, and giving him an opportunity to be heard before being fined and imprisoned, is a question not necessary to be considered on the present hearing. ”

“ That arrest on mesne process was the means of inflicting an inconceivable amount of unjustifiable suffering, and was often a mere vehicle for oppression—is indisputable. The abolition of arrest on final process stands on very different grounds. ”

“ An arrested man, by definition conscious of the police interest in him, and provided almost immediately with a lawyer and a judge, is in an excellent position to dispute the reasonableness of his arrest and contemporaneous search in a full adversary proceeding. ”

“ Although this indictment hath made a distinction between the several prisoners, and divided them into two classes, of principals and accessaries, yet the law makes no distinction in the crime. And in case all the prisoners are guilty of the charge in this indictment, they will be all equally liable to the same judgment and punishment.
“In the outset of this trial I shall not enlarge upon the heinousness of murder in general; nor shall I dwell upon those circumstances in aggravation attending this in particular. ”

“ When the constitutional validity of an arrest is challenged, it is the function of a court to determine whether the facts available to the officers at the moment of the arrest would 'warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief' that an offense has been committed. ”

“ It is true that the police have to interrogate to arrest; it is not true that they may arrest to interrogate. [7] I would hold that any confession obtained by the police while the defendant is under detention is inadmissible, unless there is prompt arraignment and unless the accused is informed of his right to silence and accorded an opportunity to consult counsel. ”

“ The 4th sect. declares, if a party who has been pardoned on condition of leaving the State shall return contrary thereto, he shall be arrested, and on being found by a jury to be the same person, the court shall pass such judgment as the law requires for the crime committed. ”

“ Suppose the sentence of a court-martial is such a judgment as will support such defence, when the second indictment is for the same offence and for a violation of the laws of the same sovereignty, will the record of a sentence by a court-martial of the United States support the plea of a former conviction, where the second indictment is found for an offence committed in violation of a State law? ”

“ He may also, at night, without a warrant, arrest any person whom he has reasonable cause for believing to have committed a felony, and is justified in making the arrest, though it afterwards appear that a felony had been committed, but that the person arrested did not commit it. ”

“ And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the said guard, or any member of them, shall be, and they are hereby, authorised and empowered to arrest any person legally charged with, or detected in, a violation of the laws of this state, and to convey, as soon as practicable, the person so arrested before a justice of the peace, judge of the superior or justice of inferior court of this state, to be dealt with according to law ”

“ Without either an information or an indictment, but merely on a simple rule to show cause, drawn up in any form the judge may think proper, a man is put upon his trial for an infamous offence, involving in its punishment the loss both of liberty and property. He is deprived both of petit jury and grand jury, and is tried by an angry adversary prepared to sacrifice him and his rights on the altar of his own vengeance. ”

“ Any private individual may, by night or day, arrest without warrant one whom he sees committing a felony or a breach of the peace or running off with goods which he has stolen. If he knows that a felony has been committed and has reasonable grounds for suspecting that it was the act of a certain person, he may arrest the latter, although without personal knowledge of his guilt. ”

“ It is the right of one placed under arrest to submit to custody and to reserve his defenses for the neutral tribunals erected by the law for the purpose of judging his case. An inference of probable cause from a failure to engage in discussion of the merits of the charge with arresting officers is unwarranted. ”

“ No order of arrest or detention shall be issued against any person other than by competent judicial authority, nor unless preceded by a charge, accusation or complaint for a specific offense punishable by imprisonment, supported by an affidavit of a credible party or by such other evidence as shall make the guilt of the accused probable ”