Hallinger v. Davis

On the 30th day of May, A. D. 1892, the appellant, Edward W. Hallinger, presented a petition to the circuit court of the United States for the district of New Jersey, wherein, and in a copy of the record of the proceedings in the court of oyer and terminer and general jail delivery of the county of Hudson, state of New Jersey, attached to said petition as part thereof, the following facts appear:

Hallinger, the appellant, was on the 14th day of April, 1891, indicted by the grand jury of Hudson county for the murder of one Mary Hallinger. On the 14th day of April, 1891, he pleaded guilty; whereupon the court ordered the said plea of guilty to be held in abeyance, subject to said defendant's consultation with counsel, then assigned for the purpose of consultation concerning said plea. On the 17th day of April, A. D. 1891, the defendant and his counsel again appeared and insisted on said plea of guilty; whereupon the said court continued said assignment of counsel, and ordered said defendant to be present on Tuesday, April 28, 1891, at an examination to determine the degree of guilt under said plea to be then and there had by said court. On the 28th day of April, 1891, the court, composed of Knapp and Lippincott, justices, in the presence of the defendant and his counsel, heard evidence concerning the degree of defendant's guilt; and on the 12th day of May, 1891, the court adjudged the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, and committed him to the custody of the jailer of Hudson county, to be confined in the common jail of said county until Tuesday, the 30th day of June, A. D. 1891, on which day he was condemned to be hanged.

Article 1, § 7, of the constitution of the state of New Jersey, provides: 'The right of a trial by jury shall remain inviolate, but the legislature may authorize the trial of civil suits, when the matter in dispute does not exceed fifty dollars, by a jury of six men.' Section 68 of the criminal procedure act of the state of New Jersey provides: 'All murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison, or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, and premenditated killing, or which shall be committed in perpetrating or in attempting to perpetrate any arson, rape, sodomy, robbery, or burglary, shall be deemed murder in the first degree; and all other kinds of murder shall be deemed murder of the second degree; and the jury, before whom any person indicted for murder shall be tried, shall, if they find such person guilty thereof, designate by their verdict whether it be murder of the first or second degree; but, if such person shall be convicted on confession in open court, the court shall proceed, by examination of witnesses, to determine the degree of the crime, and give sentence accordingly.' In his said petition the defendant alleged that said section 68 of the criminal procedure act of New Jersey is in violation of the constitution of the United States and of the state of New Jersey, and that his sentence and detention are illegal. He also states that, by virtue of the statutes and laws of the state of New Jersey, no right of appeal in murder cases exists, and he has no right to appeal to any higher court in the state to review or annul said illegal judgment and sentence.

On the 30th day of May, 1892, this application for a writ of habeas corpus was by the circuit court of the United States for the district of New Jersey refused.

B. F. Rice, for appellant.

C. H. Winfield, for appellee.

Mr. Justice SHIRAS delivered the opinion of the court.