Trial Report, 5–19 January 1843, as Published in Reports [Extradition of JS for Accessory to Assault]
Source Note
Trial Report, [, Sangamon Co., IL], 5–19 Jan. 1843, Extradition of JS for Accessory to Assault (United States Circuit Court for the District of IL 1843). Published in John McLean, Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Circuit Court of the United States, for the Seventh Circuit, vol. 3, Cincinnati: Derby, Bradley and Co., 1847, pp. 121–139. Includes typeset signature marks.
the constitution of the . It is proposed to deprive a freeman of his liberty—to deliver him into the custody of strangers, to be transported to a foreign state, to be arraigned for trial before a foreign tribunal, governed by laws unknown to him—separated from his friends, his family and his witnesses, unknown and unknowing. Had he an immaculate character, it would not avail him with strangers. Such a spectacle is appalling enough to challenge the strictest analysis.
The framers of the constitution were not insensible of the importance of courts possessing the confidence of the parties. They therefore provided that citizens of the different states might resort to the federal courts in civil causes. How much more important that the criminal have confidence in his judge and jury? Therefore, before the is issued, the officers should see that the case is made out to warrant it.
Again, was shot on the 6th of May. The affidavit was made on the 20th of July following. Here was time for inquiry, which would confirm into certainty or dissipate his suspicions. He had time to collect facts to be laid before a grand jury, or be incorporated in his affidavit. The court is bound to assume that this would have been the course of , but that his suspicions were light and unsatisfactory.
The affidavit is insufficient—1st. because it is not positive; 2d. because it charges no crime; 3d. it charges no crime committed in the state of . Therefore, he did not flee from the justice of the state of , nor has he taken refuge in the state of .
The proceedings in this affair, from the affidavit to the arrest, afford a lesson to governors and judges, whose action may hereafter be invoked in cases of this character.
The affidavit simply says that the was shot with intent to kill, and he believes that Smith was accessory [p. 137]