201 Mass. 609 | Mass. | 1909
On May 18,1909, the Justices returned the following answer:
To His Excellency the Governor and the Honorable Council of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts :
The undersigned Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, having considered the question upon which their opinion is required by the Governor and Council, respectfully submit the following opinion:
The duty of the Governor of the Commonwealth to deliver up a person charged in another State with treason, felony or other crime, who has fled from justice and is found in this State and is demanded by the executive authority of the State from which he has fled, is imposed by art. 4, § 2, of the Constitution of the United States. This duty is imperative in every case in which it arises. '
The obvious purpose of the provision is to prevent an offender against the justice of one State from obtaining immunity from punishment by fleeing to another State. It does not create a preference in the enforcement of the laws in favor of the demanding State. It has no application to a case where the offender is, at the time, held to answer for an offense against the laws of the State in which he has taken refuge. The demands of justice in that State are as high as in the State from which he came. So long as he is held to answer to the demands of justice in the State where he is found, the demand of the executive authority of the other State should be subordinate to the operation of the laws of his place of refuge. Not only does this follow from the principles on which the constitutional provision rests, but it is stated in decisions of different courts. Taylor v. Taintor, 16 Wall. 366, 373. State v. Allen, 2 Humph. 258. State v. Adams, 3 Head, 259. In matter of Troutman, 4 Zabr. 634. In matter of Briscoe, 51 How. Pr. 422. Ex parte Rosenblat, 51 Cal. 285. See also Kentucky v. Dennison, 24 How. 66.
In the first of these cases the court , said, at page 370: “ It is
It has been said that the State in which the fugitive is found may waive its right to punish him for a violation of its own laws and deliver him up to the authorities of the other State. Doubtless this is true, but it does not follow that any one of the three departments — the executive, legislative or judicial — which together represent the sovereignty of the people in their government, can waive this right alone. The only cases that have come to our attention in which it was held that there was a waiver were when the Governor issued his warrant against a person who was at large under' bail, and was therefore subject to arrest upon a proper process. So far as appears, the Governor had no knowledge in any of these cases that a prosecution had been begun in his State, and that the offender was held to bail. The most that has been decided is that delivery, under a warrant so issued, should be treated as a waiver of its right by the State that delivered up the fugitive. Of course the acceptance of bail while a prosecution is pending is a waiver of the right of the State, for the time being, to insist upon the custody of the person of the accused, and a permission to go at large in such a way that his person is liable to be taken upon any lawful warrant for his arrest.
The question as we understand it is whether the Governor has power, by his warrant issued in response to a demand from another State, to take a prisoner, upon whom a sentence of a court is being executed in the State prison, out of the custody of the law of Massachusetts by which he is held, and send hint away to another State. Let us consider first the question whether the Governor has power so to interfere in the administration of justice here, for any other reason than a demand
As we have already seen, the Constitution of the United States gives the Governor no paramount power as against the law or justice of Massachusetts, which is being vindicated through the action of the judicial department against a guilty person. His power, under this provision of the Constitution, is
Marcus P. Knowlton.
James M. Morton.
John W. Hammond.
William Caleb Loring.
Henry K. Braley.
Henry N. Sheldon. Arthur Prentice Rugg.