Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/209

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

m BB Doia. ���195 ���against the ïïnîtecl States, or showed an offence not comtnit- ted or triable in the district to which the removal ia sought, would misconceive his duty, and fail to proteot the liberty of the citizen. It is the constitutional right of the citizen to be tried in the district in which the offence imputed to him is alleged to have been committed, and not olsewhere. Article 2, §2." �The case of In re Clark, 2 Ben. 540, is not opposed to this yiew of the duty of the district judge in cases of this description. The prisoner was remanded, but the court advised that, upon 8uch a proceeding, "the indictment must be held sufficient urdess it be so defcctive in the material averments that it would be themanifest duty of the court before which it waa presented by the grand jwry to decline to take action upon it," Independently of these authorities, I should bave felt no hesitation in hold- ing that, where a district judge is applied to for a warrant of removal, and it appears from the indictment on -which the warrant is asked that the act alleged does not constitute an offence against the United States, or that no trial can behad in the district to which the removal is sought, it is his duty to re- fuse the warrant. I proceed to consider w hether the indictment in this case is so def active in material averments that it would be the manifest duty of the court to which it was presented to decline to take action upon it. The indictment alleges, in substance, that Thomas Doig, on the nineteenth of April, 1879, in the district of Oregon, and within the jurisdietion of the district court of the United States for the district of Ore- gon, was a pilot of steam vessels from and over the Columbia river bar and along the Columbia river to Astoria, in said dis- trict of Oregon. This is the only jurisdictional averment to be found in the indictment. The instrument then, alleges that on the said nineteenth of April, 1879, the steamer Great; Eepublic was "making a voyage from San Francisco, in .the state of California, to Portland, in said district of Oregon,

  • * * and had on board then and there the said Thomas

Doig as pilot, etc.; that said steamer, with said officers, etc., on board, arrived on her said voyage off the Columbia river bar, at or near the automatie buoy, at 12 :32 a. m. of the.jiiîW', ����