Post v. United States/Opinion of the Court

by Horace Gray

United States Supreme Court

161 U.S. 583

Post  v.  United States

By the Revised Statutes, as by the previous act admitting the state of Minnesota into the Union, the whole state was constituted one judicial district. Act May 11, 1858, c. 31, § 3; 11 Stat. 285; Rev. St. § 531. By Act April 26, 1890, c. 167, which took effect August 1, 1890, the district of Minnesota was divided into six divisions for the purpose of holding terms of court. The courts for the Third division, which included St. Paul, were to be held at St. Paul, on the fourth Tuesday in June and the second Tuesday in January; and the courts for the Fifth division, which included Duluth, were to be held at Duluth, on the second Tuesday in May and the second Tuesday in October. A grand jury and petit jury might be summoned at each term, and the criminal jurisdiction of the court was in no wise restricted to a particular division. 26 Stat. 72.

But by Act July 12, 1894, c. 132, entitled 'An act regulating the procedure in criminal causes in the district of Minnesota,' it was enacted, in section 1, that 'all criminal proceedings instituted for the trial of offenses against the laws of the United States arising in the district of Minnesota shall be brought, had and prosecuted in the division of said district in which such offenses were committed,' and, in section 2, that 'this act shall take effect upon its passage.' 28 Stat. 102.

As was said by this court in a recent case, 'in all cases where life or liberty is affected by its proceedings, the court must keep strictly within the limits of the law authorizing it to take jurisdiction, and to try the case, and to render judgment. It cannot pass beyond those limits, in any essential requirement, in either stage of these proceedings; and its authority in those particulars is not to be enlarged by any mere inferences from the law, or doubtful construction of its terms.' 'It is plain that such court has jurisdiction to render a particular judgment, only when the offense charged is within the class of offenses placed by the law under its jurisdiction; and when, in taking custody of the accused, and in its modes of procedure to the determination of the question of his guilt or innocence, and in rendering judgment, the court keeps within the limitations prescribed by the law, customary or statutory. When the court goes out of these limitations, its action, to the extent of such excess, is void.' In re Bonner, 151 U.S. 242, 256, 257, 14 Sup. Ct. 323.

The act of 1894, now in question, is doubtless to be construed as operating prospectively, and not retrospectively, upon the subjest legislated upon. That subject, however, is not a matter of substantive criminal law, but is one of jurisdiction and procedure only. The act does not create any new offense, or make any change in the proof or the punishment of an offense already existing. It is but a regulation of procedure, and of procedure so far only as affects the jurisdcition of the court with regard to the different divisions into which the district is divided, and in which the court may be held. It distributes the jurisdiction among the several divisions by requiring the prosecution of offenses 'arising in the district of Minnesota' to take place in that division 'in which such offenses were committed.' It is not limited to offenses which shall arise after it takes effect, nor does it in terms mention offenses which have already arisen; but it uses the general words, 'offenses arising,' which naturally include both past and future offenses, as do the words 'offenses committed'; and it is indisputably within the discretion of the legislature, when granting, limiting, or redistributing jurisdiction, to include offenses committed before the passage of the act. Cook v. U.S., 138 U.S. 157, 180, 11 Sup. Ct. 268. The point of time at which the act is to apply to a particular case is, not the time of committing the offense, but the time of instituting the proceedings. Treating the direction as operating prospectively only, that 'all criminal proceedings instituted' 'shall be brought, had and prosecuted' in a particular division, it obviously includes all proceedings which shall be, and none which have been, instituted. Without regard, therefore, to the time of the commission of an offense, all the proceedings for its prosecution, if instituted after the act of 1894 took effect, must be in the division in which the offense was committed; but, if instituted before this act took effect, they might go on, as under the earlier acts, in any division.

The two cases principally relied on by the United State, of Logan v. U.S., 144 U.S. 263, 297, 12 Sup. Ct. 617, and Caha v. U.S., 152 U.S. 211, 214, 14 Sup. Ct. 513, by implication, at least, support this conclusion. In Caha's Case, the act of congress expressly reserved the former jurisdiction, not only over prosecutions already commenced, but also over crimes already committed. In Logan's Case, the act of congress, as this court observed, 'does not affect the authority of the grand jury for the district, sitting at any place at which the court is appointed to be held, to present indictments for offenses committed anywhere within the district. It only requires the trial to be had, and writs and recognizances to be returned, in the division in which the offense is committed. The finding of the indictment is no part of the trial.'

Criminal proceedings cannot be said to be brought or instituted until a formal charge is openly made against the accused, either by indictment presented or information filed in court, or, at the least, by complaint before a magistrate. Virginia v. Paul, 148 U.S. 107, 119, 121, 13 Sup. Ct. 536; Rex v. Phillips, Russ. & R. 369; Reg. v. Parker, Leigh & C. 459, 9 Cox, Cr. Cas. 475. The submission of a bill of indictment by the attorney for the government to the grand jury, and the examination of witnesses before them, are both in secret, and are no part of the criminal proceedings against the accused, but are merely to assist the grand jury in determining whether such proceedings shall be commenced. The grand jury may ignore the bill, and decline to find any indictment; and it cannot be known whether any proceedings will be instituted against the accused until an indictment against him is presented in open court.

In the present case, each indictment, for an offense committed in the Fifth division of the district, having been first presented, after the act of 1894 took effect, to the court held in the Third division, and no complaint having been previously made against the defendant, the court had no jurisdiction of the case; and for this reason, without considering the other questions argued at the bar, the judgment is reversed, and the case remanded, with directions to set aside the verdicts, and to sustain the demurrers to the indictments.

Notes