The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-29

4
| the charge of committing the offense
OF cutting, removing, destroying and
disposing of standing and growing
| timber on government land. That hold
| ing of the United States commissioner
| for Grant county was based upon the
affidavit of Edward Taylor made be-
| fore the commissioner of the district
court for the First judicial district OF
Oklahoma, in Logan county.
Without the affidavit of Taylor and
| the warrant Issued by the United States
commissioner for the First district of
Oklahoma, this arrest would not have
been made, and the prosecution would
not have been begun. His affidavit
which is the information laid for the
purpose of causing the issuance or the
warrant, is therefore up 10 the point
now reached in the hearing or this mo-
ton, the most important step in the
proceeding and is an integral part
Of the prosecution.
Prosecution is defined in Webster's
dictionary to be:
The institution, or commencement
and continuance of criminal suit; the
the process of exhibiting formal chars-
es against an offender before legal
tribunal, and pursuing them TO final
Judgment on behalf of the state or gov
eminent as by indictment or informa-
ton
1t is the "act Of conducting any judi
cial proceeding and also the proceeding
ITSELF" and it includes everything done
or performed by any court or judicial
officer touching the rights Of parties.
Anderson's Law Dictionary; Flounoy
VS. Jacksonville, II Ind 113.
And it was held by this court in the
case of the United States VS.. Duncan
and others, in which the defendants
were arrested in Grant and Garfield
counties and brought before the court
at Kingfisher in KingfSher county in
July of 1894, that;
1T is therefore clear that if / act as
a committing magistrate, l must go in
to the county where the alleged offenses
were committed, and there sit TO have
the hearing of these cases, for the very
institution of the suit-the making of
the complaint, the issuance OF the war
rant of arrest of the defendants and
their appearance for preliminary ex-
animation are in fact part Of the pro-
Secution.
1T is held otherwise in behalf of the
plaintiffs here, and it is contended that
prosecution begins only with the &C
tual trial But / do not doubt that
the very first step taken to abridge the
liberty of any Individual by legal pro-
ceedings against him TO secure his pun
ishment under the law for crime, is
part of the prosecution The authori-
ties which | have been able TO find upon
the subject state that prosecution is
the means adopted to bring the sup
posed offender to justice and punish
ment by due course of law In this
country, the means are by indictment,
by presentment, by information and by
complaint.
BOW Law Dict, vol. 2, p. $3.50; State
VS.. Williams, "a La. An. 1893.
THE mode of prosecution is by in
dictment, presentment, by grand jury,
by coroner's inquest and by informa-
ton"
Chittys Grim. Law, PIP. 132-134.
"a prosecution is the institution or
of a criminal suit; the
process of exhibiting formal charges
against an offender before legal tri-
bunal, and pursuing him to final judg-
ment on behalf of the state or govern
ment, as by indictment or information"
BurrellS L. Dict; Schultz VS.. eKOkuk
Co., 81, N. w. Rep. $40.
There is reason why the law as it is
The weight of a criminal prosecution in
which the government charges citi-
zen with the commission of a criminal
should be born not among stran
gers, but among those who surround
the locality of the crime which is sought
to be punished, and who may know
of the offender whom the
government seeks to bring to justice.
The defendant has a right to demand
that he should sustain the weight of a
accusation only in his own
or where the offense was
and among those who know
him, and where all the human motives
of personal and neighborhood interests
are in full force both in order to protect
those whom the alleged violation of the
law has injured as well as for the protec
ton of the supposed offender. There
are United States commissioners as
we'll as United States courts within
Grant county, and while the trial for
the offense committed in Grant county
must be held in the district court with
in Grant county SO also the proSecu-
ton must begin and be carried on be-
fore the United States commissioner of
Grant county up to the time of the fill
ing of the complaint and the trial of the
case in the district court, and for the
same reasons.
And doubtless the provision of the
Organic Act is founded upon the right
Of the defendant, as founded in natural
reason and justice. There is no reason
why these informations for arrest
should be taken out of the Fifth judi
cial district where the Information for
the offenSe exists, If Ii in fact exists 1t
all, and into the First Judicial district.
and from Grant county into Logan coun
ty. and away from the judicial district
Of the United States commissioner of
Grant county who has the lawful juris-
diction. to the United tSates commits
sioner Of Logan county who has no jur
sav- y -tagz
object of procuring warrants to be is
sued with a reader facility by causing
affidavitS to be made before a United
States commissioner who has neither
residence, knowledge, personal inter-
est or jurisdiction in the county to take
any step in the prosecution outside OF
the county where the offense is charg-
ed to have been committed
The case now before the court is but
one OF a very large number of similar
cases in which the United States COM
missioners Of Logan county in the First
judicial district have for a long time
grasped Jurisdiction which
does not exist in them, 10 hear affida-
Wits and informationS for arrest: and
in which they have issued warrants for
the arrest OF persons. 10 many of the
counties of this territory among whose
people they do not reside, for the pre-
servation of whose interests and for the
control of whose actions they have not
been appointed, in whom they can have
but little interest, with whom they have
no sympathy. to whom they are in no
sense answerable. for whose welfare
they manifest no concern. and over who
the law gives TO them, no lawful au-
thority.
The motion TO quash the information
is sustained for the reason that il is
ha sed upon an affidavit ard infnrrr1s-