The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-01-04
ENCE WAS VOID
Van Syckeps Opinion
in the Clifford Murder
Case.
WATKINS is ACTING GOVERNOR
Governor Can Only Reprieve
a Prisoner to Ninety Days
After Sentence.
WATKINS is ACTING GOVERNOR

Supreme Court an opinion in the case
of Detective Clifford, who is sentenced te
be hanged on Friday next for the murder
of William G. Watson, superintendent OF
the West Shore Railroad, the date for
the execution having been fixed by Act
ing Governor David o. Watkins. The
case was brought before the Supreme
Court on writs of abeas corpus and
certiorari and the right of David ..
Watkins to act as Governor was ques-
toned, it being contended that Foster M,
Voorhees, resigned only as Senator from
Union County, and is therefore the Act
ing Governor. The opinion holds that
Voorhees, resignation as Senator from
Union County carried with it his office
as Acting Governor.
Clifford's counsel also raised the point
thai no Governor has the right to issue
a death warrant beyond the period for
which he can issue a reprieve. The power
to &sue a reprieve is limited to ninety
days, and the death warrant in the Cliff
ford case was issued more than fifteen
months after the conviction. On this
point the Court sustains Clifford's coun-
sci, and the doomed man is ordered to
be remanded. A date for his death viii
be fixed later, the so-called death war
rant being set aside as unconstitutional.
The syllabus of the opinion says
1. The legality of the proceedings at the
trial of a prisoner convicted of a crime
by a court of competent jurisdiction cam
not be challenged or reviewed by habeas
corpus.
2. On a writ of certiorari allowed with
the writ of habeas corpus to bring up a
warrant for the execution of a prisoner,
II 1890 h- fhn Lnvn11TfTyE
department of the State government, UNI
der authority of the act of April 16, 1876,
the court will adjudge whether such war
rant is valid
3. When the Governor of the State re-
signs, the powers, duties and emoluments
of the office devolve, under the constitu-
ton, upon the President of the Senate, but
he does not thereby become the governor
of the State. in the constitutional sense;
the President of the Senate retains his
office of Senator and as President of the
Senate he exercises the powers and per-
forms the duties of the executive depart
ment.
4. When he resigns his office as Senator,
he ceases to be President of the Senate.
and thereupon the powers duties and en-
oluments of the executive office devolve
in like manner upon the speaker OF the
House of Assembly.
5. The granting of a reprieve and the
fixing of a day for the execution OF a
criminal is by the common law a judicial
power, and cannot be exercised by the
Governor or person administering thegov-
ernment except in so far as it is express
ly permitted by the constitution.
6. The constitution bestows upon the e1-
ecutive department the power to reprieve
but limits the exercise of that power to a
period of ninety days after conviction,
which means ninety days after sentence
in the court below; as an incident to this
granting power the executive department
may direct the execution to be proceeded
with within the ninety days, and in that
event the execution takes place, not by
force of the executive warrant, but in vir-
tue of the judgment of the court.
z. After the lapse of the ninety days, the
power of the executive department in this
respect ceases.
The opinion says
Edward Clifford was convicted of MUIR
der in the first degree in the Court of
Oyer and Terminer of the county of Hud-
son, and sentenced by the court on the
14th day of September, 1896.
: The proceedings of the trial were sub
sequently taken to the Court of Errors
and Appeals, and by the judgment of that
court the Judgment of the court below
was affirmed. Thereupon the Court of
Oyer and Terminer ordered Clifford to be
executed on the 10th of February. 1895.
On the 18th of February, 1898. Foster
on. VOORHEES,, Presid,nt of the Senate,
under his hand and the great seal of
the State of New Jersey. directed the
Sheriff of Hudson to suspend the execu-
tion of the death sentence until the 10Th
of March. 1898.
Further proceedings were taken on be-
half of Clifford in the Federal Courts by
which the execution of the sentence was
stayed until November %, 1898, when
David o. Watkins Speaker OF the House
of Assembly of New Jersey, under his
suspended the execution until the 9Th day
of January, 1899, and ordered the execu-
Clifford is now before this court on
habeas corpus, and at his instance a writ
the court The proceedings under which
the State claims to rest the order of
David O. Watkins. the validity of which
is controverted In this case.
Our habeas corpus act provides that
the following, among other persons men
toned, shall not be entitled to prosecute
It is clear, therefore, that the legality Oh
the proceedings at the trial of CLIFFORD
cannot be challenged or reviewed by writ
of habaes corpus, and if the case before
us presented no other question, 1t would
be the duty of the court to dismiss the
writ as i~mprovidently granted.
But the return to the .certiorari and the
facts agreed upon present a question OF
great Importance in which the validity OF
the Judgment of our courts is nowise in
volved. That question is whether A-vid
O. Watkins has the power to order the ex-
ecution of Clifford? If the warrant issued
by him was unauthorized it is the pro-
49, ,~rl l,rtx .nf fhfc nm m infarNana
for the purpose of preventing an unldWful
execution of the person condemned.
AT the time of Foster M. Voorhees, res
ignation, David O. Watkins was Speaker
of the House of Assembly. On the 18th
day of October, 1898, he filed in the office
of the Secretary of State an oath that he
would administer the government of the
state in conformity with the powers dele
gated to him. 1t is insisted on behal of
hees filed in the office of the Secretary of
State his oath as Acting Governor, he
ceased to be a member of the Senate, and
became Governor of the State for the
term fixed by the constitution until an
other Governor should be elected; that
his resignation of his seat In the Senate
was unnecessary and could not in any
wise affect the tenure of his office as
Governor.
The gun is that Foster M. voor-
hees became Governor and ceased thereby
to be Senator without ~resigning the latter
office; thai his subsequent resigning of
the Senatorship did not operate as a
resignation of his Office as Governor, or
in anywise affect his right to hold said
Office or his duty to execute its prescribed