Hudson v. Parker

This was a petition for a writ of mandamus to the Honorable Isaac C. Parker, the district judge of the United States for the Western district of Arkansas, to command him to admit the petitioner to bail on a writ of error from this court, dated August 14, 1894, upon a judgment rendered by the district court for that for that district at May term, 1894, to wit, on July 21, 1894, adjudging him, upon conviction by a jury, to be guilty of an assault with intent to kill, and sentencing him to imprisonment for the term of four years at hard labor at Brooklyn, in the state of New York.

The petition alleged that Mr. Justice Brewer, the justice of this court assigned to the Eighth circuit, in which the district court was held, being absent from that circuit and from the city of Washington, the petitioner, on August 14, 1894, presented to Mr. Justice White, at chambers in this city, a petition for a writ of error upon that judgment, and for a supersedeas and bail pending the writ of error; and that Mr. Justice White signed and indorsed upon that petition the following order: 'Writ of error, to operate as a supersedeas, allowed, returnable according to law, the defendant to furnish bond in the sum of five thousand dollars, conditioned according to law, subject to the approval of the district judge. E. D. White, Justice Supreme Court of the United States.

'Washington, August 14, 1894.'

The petition for a mandamus further alleged that on September 3, 1894, after the writ of error had been issued, and the citation served upon the United States, the petitioner presented to the district judge, in open court, and requested him to approve, a bond in the sum of $5,000, executed by himself, as principal, and by four persons, residents of the Western district of Arkansas, as sureties, who (as appeared by their affidavits annexed to the bond) were worth in their own right, over and above their debts and liabilities and the property exempt by law from execution, the sum of $17,500.

This bond, which was filed with the petition for a mandamus, was dated August 27, 1894; recited that the petitioner had sued out a writ of error from this court, upon which a citation had been issued and served upon the United States, and that the petitioner had, by order of Mr. Justice White, been admitted to bail, pending the writ of error, in the sum of $5,000; and was conditioned that the petitioner should prosecute his writ of error with effect and without delay, and should abide the judgment of this court, and, if this court should reverse the judgment of the district court, appear in that court until discharged according to law.

The petition for a mandamus further alleged that, upon the presentation of this bond to the district judge, he refused to approve it, or to discharge the petitioner, and made and signed an order, which, after reciting the application to him for the approval of the bond, and the order of Mr. Justice White, proceeded and concluded as follows: