Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/912

 900 FEDERAL REPORTBB. �Rufus Mallory and John W. Whalley, for petitioner. �Deady, D, J. This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus directed to the sheriff of this county commanding him to pro- duce thebody of the petitioner, Ah Lee, before this court, together with the cause of bis detention. Substantially the petition stateg that the petitioner is a citizen of the empire of China; that he ha s been indieted and convicted of the crime of murder in the circuit court for the county of Mult- nomah and state of Oregon, alleged to have been committed in the killing of one Chung Su Ging about October 3, 1878, in a joss house in this city, the judgment of which court was after- wards afiSrmed by the supreme court of the state ; that after- wards said circuit court, in pursuance of a mandate from said supreme court, appointed April 20, 1880, as the day on which the judgment aforesaid should be executed by hanging the petitioner ; that neither the person who acted as judge of said circuit court during the pendency of said proceeding, nor those who acted aa judges of said supreme court during the same, were ever appointed or elected judges of said courts, or any of them, in pursuance of any law or authority of the state of Oregon ; that neither they, nor any of them, had any power or authority to act as such judges during the pendency of said proceeding, or at ail, and that therefore said proceed- ing and the judgment therein were carried on and had with- out due process of law, within the meaning of article 14 of the amendments of the constitution of the United States, and are therefore void and of no eifect; that the sheriff of said county now unlawf ully restrains the petitioner of his liberty in pursuance of said void and pretended judgment, and also threatens and intends to deprive him of his life, as therein provided and directed. Besides these allegations contained in the petition, it was assumed and understood upon the argument that the foUowing facts were judicially known to the court: That on October 17, 1878, the legislature of this state passed an act entitled "An act to provide for the elec- tion of supreme and circuit judges in distinct classes," (Sess. Laws 1878, p. 33,) by which it was provided that at the gen- erai election in June, 1880, there should be elected three jus. ����