Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/554

534 .534 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. a second prosecution would be instituted and pushed with energy after an acquittal on the merits upon a fair trial in the State first acquiring physical possession of the prisoner and full jurisdiction of the offence. The inquiry naturally suggests itself, why not extradite the culprit from the State in which he set his crime in motion to the State in which it accomplished its result. In the North Carolina- Tennessee case, above referred to, such an attempt was made and the right to such interstate rendition was denied.^ I think this was proper, even though the circumstances were very flagrant and the miscarriage of justice very gross. The discussion of the grounds for such refusal renders desirable some little general consideration of the subject of interstate extradition or rendition. The right is conferred by the second section of Article IV. of the Constitution of the United States, which provides that " a person charged in any State with treason, felony or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another State, shall, on the demand of the executive authority of the State, from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdic- tion of the crime." This language is merely declaratory of a general principle, and in order, in part at least, to furnish modus operandi, Congress as early as 1 793 passed a statute, the salient portions of which have been re-enacted in sections 5278 and 5279 of the Federal Revised Statutes, and read in part as follows : — " Whenever the Executive authority of any State or Territory demands any person as a fugitive from justice of the Executive authority of any State or Territory to which such person has fled, and shall produce a copy of an indictment found or an affidavit made before a magistrate or any State or Territory, charging the person demanded with having committed treason, felony, or other crime, certified as authentic by the Governor or Chief Magistrate of the State or Territory from whence the person so charged has fled, it shall be the duty of the Executive authority of the State or Territory to which such person has fled to cause him to be arrested and secured, and cause notice of the arrest to be given to the Executive authority making such demand, or to the agent of such authority appointed to receive the fugitive, and to cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent when he shall appear. If no such agent appear within six months from the time of the arrest, the prisoner may be discharged. 1 State V. Hall, 115 N. C. 811.