Case ID: ark-terr-rep_1/html/0562-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

United States vs. Joseph Ivy.
    1. The circuit court of the United States had no jurisdiction to punish offences committed in the Indian country -west of Arkansas, anterior to the 17th of June, 1844.
    2. Cases of United States v. Alberty, ante, p. 444, and United States v. Starr, , ante, p. 469, cited and confirmed.
    December, 1847.
    
      Habeas corpus, before Benjamin Johnson, district judge, at chambers.
    
      S. H. Hempstead, district attorney, for the United States.
    
      E. H. English, for the defendant.
   Opinion oe the Court. — On hearing this case and carefully examining the evidence, it appears clearly that the defendant has been committed for trial in the circuit court, charged with the murder of Larkin Eckles, a white man, in the Cherokee nation, west of Arkansas, on the 7th September, 1840. The offence having been perpetrated in the Indian country anterior to its annexation to the Districttof Arkansas, by the act of congress of the 17th of June, 1844, (10 Laws U. S. 58.3,) the circuit court of the United States has no jurisdiction to try the defendant, as has been heretofore expressly decided in the United States v. Alberty (ante, p. 444), and the United States v. Starr (ante, p. 469), the doctrine of which cases is deemed to be entirely correct, and decisive of the present question, and consequently the defendant must be discharged from further imprisonment. Discharged accordingly.