55 Ga. 192 | Ga. | 1875
The defendant was indicted for the offense of “ perjury” in the superior court of Randolph county,andón the trialtherefor, the jury found him guilty. When the evidence on the part of the state was closed on the trial, the counsel for the defendant made a motion to quash the indictment and proceedings, and to discharge the defendant, on the ground that the alleged false oath was taken before a United States commissioner in the investigation before him of an alleged violation of a penal law of the United States, punishable by the courts of the' United States, and that the superior court of Randolph county had no jurisdiction to try said ease, which motion, the court overruled, and the defendant excepted.
It appears from the evidence in the record, that the oath of the defendant mi which the perjury was assigned, was taken before a United States commissioner on the investigation of a charge preferred before him for a violation of the enforcement act of congress by one Kenney, and the question is, whether the state court had concurrent jurisdiction with the federal courts for the trial of the alleged offense, or whether the federal courts had the exclusive jurisdiction for the trial thereof. The offense charged in the indictment, is an offense against the public justice of the United States — and whatever may have been the conflicting decisions in the several courts of the United States in regard to the concurrent jurisdiction of. the state courts in similar cases, prior to the adoption of the Revised Code of the statutes' of the United States on the 20th of June, 1874, there is now no longer any room for doubt or discussion in relation to that question. By the 5392 section of the Revised Statutes of the United States, it. is declared that every person who, having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that lie will testify truly, etc., wilfully and contrary to such oath, states any material matter which he does believe to be true, is guilty of perjury, and shall be punished, etc., and shall
Let the judgment of the court below be reversed.