United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Carper v. Fitzgerald, 121 U.S. 87 (1887)

Carper v. Fitzgerald

Argued March 18, 1887

Decided March 28, 1897

121 U.S. 87

Syllabus

No appeal lies to this Court from an order of a circuit judge of the United States, sitting as a judge and not as a court, discharging a prisoner brought before him on a writ of habeas corpus

An order of the Circuit Judge of the Fourth Circuit, made at Baltimore, Maryland, that a prisoner brought before him there from Richmond, Virginia, on a writ of habeas corpus shall be discharged is a proceeding before him as a judge, and not as sitting as a court, and it is not converted

Page 121 U. S. 88

into a proceeding of the latter kind by a further order that the papers in the case be filed in the Circuit Court of the United states at Richmond, and the order of discharge be recorded in that court.

Rule 34, 117 U.S. 708, explained.

This was an appeal from an order discharging a prisoner on a writ of habeas corpus. The case is stated in the opinion of the Court.