Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/290

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united states v. ambrose
283

will therefore he issued as prayed for. If in this we have committed an error, the error can be easily corrected by appeal. We have given to the parties the benefit of our best convictions, and these it is our duty to follow until the court of last resort, whose decrees are final, shall decide otherwise.




The United States v. Ambrose.[1]

(Circuit Court, S. D. Ohio.May, 1880.)

1. Federal Jury Act of June 30, 1879—Construction.—The provisions of the second section of the act of congress of June 30, 1879, (first session, forty-sixth congress, c. 52,) prescribing the mode in which jurors in the federal courts shall be drawn, is mandatory; with this qualification, however: that an honest intention to conform to the statute and carry out its provisions in good faith is all that is required.
2. Same—Same—Grand Jury—Failure to Put Name in Box.— Where a grand jury was drawn under the provisions of this act, and the name of one of the jurors who assisted in finding the indictment was not put into the box by any competent authority, nor drawn from it, and there was no imputation that such name appeared in the venire through bad faith, held, to be a mere irregularity, which would not vitiate the action of the grand jury.

Upon demurrer to plea in abatement. The defendant was indicted for presenting a false claim against the government. To the indictment he filed a plea in abatement, setting forth the following grounds why it should be quashed: (1.) The venire for the grand jurors was issued from the circuit court, whereas the application for the same was addressed to the judge of another court having jurisdiction thereof. (2.) The order of the circuit court directing the venire to issue recites that such order was made upon the application of the district attorney, when in truth no such application was made to said circuit court. (3.) The box from which the names of said grand jurors were drawn did not contain, at the time of said

  1. Reported by Messrs. Florien Giauque and J. C. Harper, of the Cincinnati Bar.