Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/227/150
Timestamp: 2016-10-21 13:16:19
Document Index: 359865849

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 6', '§ 7', '§ 8', '§ 1258', 'art. 7', '§ 18']

J. THORBURN ROSS, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF OREGON. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
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227 U.S. 150 (33 S.Ct. 220, 57 L.Ed. 458)
[HTML] Messrs. William d. guthrie and Wallace McCamant for plaintiff in error.
Argument of Counsel from page 154 intentionally omitted
This was a criminal prosecution in the state of Oregon, instituted by an information charging the defendants, of whom the plaintiff in error was one, with having converted to their own use a large sum of money belonging to the state's irreducible school fund, agricultural college fund, and university fund, collectively spoken of as educational funds, then held for safe-keeping in a bank of which the defendants were in control as its officers and directors. Upon a separate trial of the plaintiff in error he was convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment and to pay a fine. An appeal to the supreme court of the state resulted in the elimination of the fine and in the affirmance of the judgment in other respects. 55 Or. 450, L.R.A.(N.S.) , 104 Pac. 596, 106 Pac. 1022. The plaintiff in error then brought the case here, claiming that rights secured to him by the Constitution of the United States, and specially set up in the supreme court of the state, were denied by the judgment of affirmance.
The same act authorized the designation of 'an active depository for the collection of any drafts, checks, certificates of deposit, and coupons that may be received by him the treasurer on account of any claim due the state' (§ 6); required such depository to give approved security 'for the prompt collection of all drafts, checks, certificates of deposit, or coupons that may be delivered to such active depository by the state treasurer for collection; also, for the safe-keeping and prompt payment on the state treasurers' order of the proceeds of all such collections' (§ 7); and in that connection provided (§ 8): 'The state treasurer, on receipt of any draft, check, or certificate of deposit, on account of state dues, may place the same in such active depository for collection, and it shall be the
The prosecution was instituted by an information conformably to a law of the state in force at the time. Bellinger & C. Anno. Codes & Statutes, § 1258. Following the judgment of conviction, and while the case was pending on appeal, a constitutional amendment was adopted, declaring: 'No person shall be charged in any circuit court with the commission of any crime or misdemeanor defined or made punishable by any of the laws of this state, except upon indictment found by a grand jury.' Or. Const. art. 7, § 18. The plaintiff in error thereupon advanced the contention that the constitutional amendment worked a repeal of the statute under which the information was filed, and made it impossible to enforce the judgment against him without depriving him of his liberty without due process of law, contrary to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The state court ruled that the amendment to the state Constitution was prospective and did not affect pending cases. Error is now assigned upon that ruling. But it involved nothing more than the construction of the constitutional amendment, which was a question of local law, and its decision by the state court is not reviewable here.