The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-10
is NOT GUILTY
Of SMUGGLING
Supreme Court Decides
the Keck Case.
FAILED TO LAND DIAMONDS
AND THEREFORE CRIMINAL ACT
WAS NOT COMPLETE.
However, Several Justices Dissent
and Hold That the Law Was
Clearly Violated by the
Accused.
FAILED TO LAND DIAMONDS
AND THEREFORE CRIMINAL ACT
WAS NOT COMPLETE.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9.-The United
States Supreme Court, through Justice
White, to-day rendered an opinion in
the case of Herman Keck, charged with
smuggling diamonds into the United
States, holding that he was not guilty
as charged, and thus reversing the
verdict of the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania
This case involved the construction
and the meaning of the word SNUG
Cling and of paragraph 476 of the
Wilson tariff act, under which it was
claimed that it was intended to make
diamonds free because a semicolon fol-
lows the word diamonds in this para
graph. The court held on this latter
point that it was merely an error of
punctuation and that diamonds were
dutiabie under paragraph 33S of the
Wilson act imposing a duty on precious
stones generally.
The court gave its principal attention
to the charge of smuggling, holding
that it was not applicable because the
goods IN question were not landed and
that, therefore, the act was not com
pleted. The diamonds which were all
legged to have been struggled We're
brought to the United States by the
captain of the steamer Rhinelander. at
the request of Keck, who appears to
have met the captain in Antwerp pre-
vious TO sailing, and to have requested
him to bring over package, the con-
tents of which he did not mention. and
forward it upon his arrival to a per
son in Cincinnati, whose name Keck
gave him.
His package proved to contain dia-
monds, and when the Rhinelander
reached the harbor at Philadelphia, the
customs inspectors, who had been no.
titled of the probable arrival of the
package, boarded the vessel and made
a demand upon the captain for It, He
promptly turned it over and it was
confiscated and Keck placed under ar
rest on the double charge of smuggling
and Illegally importing the diamonds
In the District Court for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania he was found
guilty. The effect of Justice Whites
decision was to reverse the decision of
the District Court and remand the
case.
In passing upon the charge of SNUG
Cling, Justice White said the common
law meaning of the word still attached
to 1t since its incorporation into the
statutes of the United States and that
the definition of the word under the
! common law embraced the taking of
goods through the lines of the custom
house. He concluded that in this in
stance the attempt at smuggling was
not completed. and said that 1t was
clear that an act could not be criminal
if something essential remains to rem
der it complete.
Four of the members of the court.
Chief Justice Fuller and Justices Har-
Ian, Brewer and Brown, dissented, and
Justice Brown delivered a minority
opinion defining the word smuggling
as meaning an attempt to clandestinely
introduce merchandise into the coun-
try and holding that KeCk was guilty
under this construction. He said that
the definition which the court had
given the word, namely, that it refer
red especially to the unloading Of
goods, had never found Judgment in a
law dictionary of accepted authority
nor in adjudicated cases.