Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/47

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

EX PABTE. LANE. 85 �6. SAME— IkFOIiMATION AND BEtiEB".» �A complaint made simply upon information and belief is fatally defective, and gives the commissioner no jurisdiction. , r �6. Bamb — Same— OiTiciAL Representative. �If the person making the complaint haa no p'ersonal knowledge of the facts, it should appear ttiat he isa representative of the foreiga government, acting in an officiai capacity, or he' should produce an indictment against the party charged, or depositions tending to show bis guilt, or at least set forth with particularity the sources and details of his information, that it may appear that the arrest of the party is eought upon something more than a rumor or suspicion ofJii6 'gnilt. �7. Same— Ambndmbnt bt Commissioner— Obbtiobabi. �The commissioner has no power to amend the complaint or warrant, or to supply defects by his certiflcate, after the case is closed and a ■writ of certiorari is served upon him to produce the record of his pro- ceedings. �This was a writ of habeas corpus and certiorari to review the proceedings had before Darius J. Davison, United States commissioner, with reference to the application of the Cana- dian authorities for the extradition of the petitioner, Oliver Lane. Under the writ of habeas corpus the marshal returned that he held the prisoner in custody by virtue of a mittimus from the commissioner to await the order of the gecretary of state. To the certiorari the commissioner returned a iecord of the proceedings in the cause. �A. E. Hawes, for petitioner. �J. W. Finney, Asst. U. S. Dist. Att'y» for prosecution. �Bkown, D. j. Several objections were taken to tho regu- larity of the proceedings before the commissioner, which I proceed to consider in their order, �1. That the complaint nowhere recites the appointaient of the commissioner, nor that he is empowered under the laws of the United States to entertain complaintS or issue warrants in extradition cases. The complaint purports to be made by Alexander B. Baxter, of Chatham, in the prov- ince of Ontario, "who, being duly swom, saith, that on Mb best knowledge, information, and belief," etc.; and purports to be swom to before D. J. Davison, United States extra- dition commissioner for the eastern district of Michigan ��� �