Givens v. Zerbst

Citations

• 255 U.S. 11
• 41 S. Ct. 227
• 65 L. Ed. 475
• 1921 U.S. LEXIS 1835

Syllabus

<p>1. The authority to convene a general court-martial may be conferred upon the commander of a military camp by an order of the President' under the 8th Article of War, which provides that “the commanding officer of any district or of any force or body of troops,” may appoint such courts-martial when empowered by the President. P. 18.</p> <p>2. A general order of the President lodging this power in the commander of designated, military camps is judicially noticed' as' part of the law of the land, and the legality of a court-martial established under it is not affected by omission to refer to it in the order convening the court-martial. Id.</p> <p>3. A general court-martial, so convened by a camp commander, has jurisdiction to try an officer of the rank of captain. P. 19.</p> <p>4. The judgment of a court-martial is open to collateral attack for want of jurisdiction, and to sustain such a judgment it must appear that the facts essential to the jurisdiction existed when the jurisdiction was exercised. Id.</p> <p>5. Where the due convocation of a court-martial with' jurisdiction to try offenses of the class in question is established on the face of its record, the existence of a particular fact not so shown but acted</p> <p>• upon by the court-martial, and necessary to its jurisdiction over</p> <p>. the particular case, may be proven in support of its judgment upon a collateral attack. P. 20.</p> <p>6. Held, that evidence was admissible in a habeas corpus proceeding to prove the military status of the relator at the time of his trial and conviction, where the record of the court-martial was silent on the subject beyond showing that he was charged as a captain in the army. Id.</p> <p>7. Upon an appeal from a judgment in habeas corpus, evidence upon which the lower court’s decision depended must be brought up in the record, though it need not be in the form' of a bill of excsptions. Id:</p> <p>8. In providing that “no person shall be tried by court-martial- for murder o