United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

In re Loney, 134 U.S. 372 (1890)

In re Loney

No. 1118

Submitted January 21, 1890

Decided March 2, 1890

134 U.S. 372

Syllabus

The courts of a state have no jurisdiction of a complaint for perjury in testifying before a notary public of the state upon a contested election of a member of the House of Representatives of the United States, and a person arrested by order of a magistrate of the state on such a complaint will be discharged by writ of habeas corpus.

This was a writ of habeas corpus granted upon the petition of Wilson Loney, by the circuit court of the United States, to the police sergeant of the City of Richmond, in the State of Virginia, who justified his detention of the prisoner under a warrant of arrest from a justice of the peace for that city upon a complaint charging him with willful perjury committed on February 2, 1889, in giving his deposition as a witness before a notary public of the city in the case of a contested election of a member of the House of Representatives of the United States.

Page 134 U. S. 373

The circuit court discharged the prisoner upon the ground that the offense charged against him was punishable only under § 5392 of the Revised Statutes, and was within the exclusive cognizance of the courts of the United States. 38 F.1d 1. The respondent appealed to this Court.