Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savannah, on the Charge of Piracy, in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New YorkWarburton, A. F. (Adolphus Frederick)
History
Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savannah, on the Charge of Piracy, in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York
Warburton, A. F. (Adolphus Frederick)
Piracy -- United States; Privateering -- United States; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
The case of Smith--the trial just terminated in Philadelphia, in which
the prisoner was tried and convicted before the Circuit Court of the
United States--is an authority of the two Judges of that Court on this
very point, the circumstances of a prior introduction of the prisoner
within the Eastern District of Virginia being much more distinct than
in this case. The capturing vessel was a steamer, which took the prize
into Hampton Roads. The defendant and the others of the prize crew were
kept as prisoners on board this war steamer, which, after anchoring in
Hampton Roads, near Fortress Monroe, went a short distance up the
Potomac, returned, and again anchored in Hampton Roads, after which she
brought the prisoners, including the defendant, into Philadelphia,
where they were taken into the custody of the Marshal. Now,
unquestionably, geographically, that prisoner was within the State of
Virginia, and within the Eastern District of Virginia, rather more
distinctly than in the case now on trial. In that case, the Court
said--"One of the points of law on which counsel for the defence
requests instruction to the Jury is, that the Court has no jurisdiction
of the case; because, after his apprehension on the high seas, he was
first brought into another District, meaning the Eastern District of
Virginia, and ought to be there tried. This instruction cannot be
given. When he was taken prisoner, and was detained in the capturing
vessel, he was not apprehended for trial, within the meaning of the Act
of Congress. His first apprehension for that purpose, of which there is
any evidence, was at Philadelphia, after his arrival in this District.
Whether he had been previously brought into another District, within
the meaning of the Act, is immaterial"--recognizing the doctrine of two
alternative jurisdictions, neither exclusive of the other. "It has been
decided that, under this law, a person, first brought into one
District, and afterwards apprehended in another, may be tried in the
latter District. Therefore, if you believe the testimony on the
subject, this Court has jurisdiction of the case."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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