The San Francisco call., 1909-05-28
SAYS COLLINS IS
WITHOUT A CHANCE
Assistant District Attorney Cook
Expects to Have Prisoner in
San Quentin Soon
Every Hope Of Convicted Laws
yer Dispelled by Federal SUI
preme Court Decision


Il expect to have George D. Collins
in San Quentin by July L.
This was the statement made yester-
day by William IIoff Cook, assistant
district attorney, who has conducted
the fight on behalf of the state against
Collins through the great maze of tech
nicalities that have been introduced
in the appeals TO the higher courts.
Cook had just read the complete de-
cision of the Unite Estates supreme
court when he made the statement. ThL
full decision. which arrived yesterday,
knocks out every contention that Col
lins has raised The court found along
the lines that Cook argued, and adopted
his suggestion that the ruling be made
specific as to the legal status of Col
Inns. This was done in the last para
graph. which disposed of Collins as
follows:
MUST co TO SAN QUENTIN
"As soon as the judgments herein are
affirmed the plaintiff in error lColiins)
viii, of course, pursuant to the judg-
ment entered upon the verdict of con-
yiction against him, be taken to the
in the sentence and there confined ac-
cOrding to law
Cook argued orally before the SUI
preme court in April and, that there
could be no further question, requested
that the decision leave no doubt as to
Collins custody.
The technicalities raise dby Collins
as to the right of the sheriff to hold
him after federal eXtradition were dis
missed in the following sentence:
The other objections made by him
in regard to the person who now has
him in custody under the various war
returned in the record, we regard as
unimportant"
The court lays down principle of in
ternational law in Soverruling Collins
contention that under the United
States revised statutes he could be
tried for no other offense than the one
for which he was extradited On this
point Justice Packham, who wrote the
decision, says:
KNOCKS OUT CONTENTION
1t impossible to conceive of rep
resentatives of two civilized countries
solemnly entering into a treaty of ex-
tradition and therein providing that a
criminal surrendered according to de-
mand for a crme that he has COM
mitted if subsequent to his surrender
he is guilty of murder or treason or
other crme, is. nevertheless, to have
the right granted to him TO return un-
molested TO the country which sur
rendered him. We can ina gine no
country, by treaty, as desirous of ex-
acting such condition of surrender or
any country as willing 10 accept it.
ST a N 70 a
provision that the party surrendered
shall be tried for no other offense un-
I'll he has had an opportunity to leave
the country, the meaning of such
provision is perfectly plain and must
receive a reasonable and sensible con-
struetion. The party proceeded against
must not be tried for any other offense
existing at the time when he was ex-
tradited lwhether at the time of such
extradition it had or had not been dis
coveredD until he shall have had a
reasonable time to return to the coun-
try from which he was taken, after his
trial or other termination of the pro-
ceeding. That such privilege should be
accorded to one who commits a crime
after his surrender to a demanding
government lacks all semblance of rea-
son or sense.
The contention is also without merit
that he has. at any rate, the right to
a trial to a conclusion of the case for
which he was extradited before he can
be tried for a crime subsequently com
mitted. The matter lies within the
jurisdiction of the state, whose laws
he has violated since his extradition
and we can not see that it is matter
of interest to the surrendering govern
ment."
The terms of the decision are such
said Cook yesterday, that the motions
since made by Collins are practically
nullified. His only chance is a rehear-
ing and there is not the slightest foun-
dation on which to base the supposition
that the supreme court will grant one.
keeDiup IJD EiOhf