The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-03-31
ATTACK COURTS
JURISDICTION
Defendants in Land Fraud
Case Assert Washington
Court Cannot Try Them
ARGUMENT is STILL ON
New Point Made by Shrewd
Counsel and Able Reply
From the Government Side

The attorneys on each side of the
land fraud case yesterday came into
! their second wind. AS result OF
new line of attack on the indictment
! opened by Charles S. Wheeler OF
counsel for the defense the lawyers are
still talking, and United States Com
missioner Heacock has not yet had an
! opportunity to announce whether ne
will hold the defendants, Hyde and
! Dimond, for trial before the Supreme
| Court of the District of Columbia
Wheeler made a strong and plausible
argument against the jurisdiction OF
| that court, notwithstanding the Com
missioner's Discrimination to go into the
| question of jurisdiction, and the dis
cussion of the points raised was not
! completed when the hour for adjourn
nent arrived.
Wheeler opened by declaring that the
! Commissioner had been too modest In
holding that he had no right to ques-
ton the jurisdiction of the court. He
said, among other things:
Your Honor is entitled 10 pass upon the
Jurisdiction OF any court or Judge. whether ne
be the Chief Justice OF the Supreme Court OF
only a Justice OF the Peace. Ny client mas
rights which the law places in your CUSTODY
i propose to show that, by Xpress statute the
Jurisdiction to try accusation that can De
tried in the courts OF state. Onoer tnt
be tried in the STATE where his crime Is al
legal to have been committed. Not so Win
the District Of Columbia. This trial might os
transferred from WASHINGTON to Sitka Inc
! Federal constitution does not govern terri
tories. and it is an outrage to say that man
can be taken. the country for trial in
a
obtains and where judges hold, not for lie.
but at the will OF the President
TILT BETWEEN COUNSEL.
A. B. Pugh, one of the Government
attorneys from Washington. corrected
Wheeler, pointing out that under the
act governing the district, the Judges
do hold for life. Francis j. Heney,
special counsel for the prosecution, also
objected, declaring Wheeler had in
simulated that the Judges at Washington
are corrupt because they are appointed
by a corrupt President. This reused
Wheelers ire. Said he:
utterly repudiate the suggestion. There
is no man in the country who has a higher
respect for Theodore Roosevelt and his splen-
did Integrity of Character than have l. But
there is nothing to prevent Congress from
passing a law that these defendants shall be
tried in Alaska or the Indian Territory II
they committed crime in the District. they
are not protected by any constitutional guar
anty of trial there. This indictment how
ever. charges that they committed a crime
partly in the District and partly in the States
of California and Oregon. Hence we contend
that under the constitution they must be tried
in of these States and not in the District
You are mistaken" interrupted
Heney. THE indictment charges that
the crime of conspiracy was commit
ted only in the District of Columbia.
Doubtless it will be possible to indict
them of conspiracy in these States also,
but we have not as yet done so. This