In Re Johnson

Citations

• 167 U.S. 120
• 17 S. Ct. 735
• 42 L. Ed. 103
• 1897 U.S. LEXIS 2089

Syllabus

<p>On July 24, 1896, a warrant was issued by a commissioner for the Southern District of the Indian Territory to arrest Johnson upon the charge of rape, alleged to have been committed upon one Pearl McCormick on the same day. Subsequently, and on the 9th of October, at a regular term of the United States court for that district, he was indicted, and on the 17th of October was arraigned, tried and convicted by a jury, and is now under sentence of death. On .July 25, the day following the commission of the offence, a warrant, issued by a commissioner for the Eastern District of Texas, charging him with the same crime, was placed in the hands of the marshal for that district, who demanded of the marshal of the Southern District of the Indian Territory the surrender of the petitioner in obedience to said writ, but the same was refused. It does not appear when this demand was made, or whether it was before or after the 1st day of September. It further appeared that, at the time of the commission of the offence, the United States court for the Eastern district of Texas was not in session, and that no term of said court was held until the third Monday of November, after petitioner had been tried, convicted and sentenced to death. ifeZd, that if the petitioner was actually in the custody of the marshal on the 1st of September, his subsequent indictment and trial were valid, though in the first instance he might have been' illegally arrested.</p> <p>It is the settled doctrine of this court that a court having possession of a person or property cannot be deprived of the right to deal with such person or property until its jurisdiction is exhausted, and that no other court has the right to interfere with such custody and possession.</p>