United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

In re Wood, 140 U.S. 278 (1891)

In re Wood

No. 1581

Argued April 10, 1891

Decided May 11, 1891

140 U.S. 278

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED

STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Syllabus

When the statutes of a state do not exclude persons of African descent from serving as grand or petit jurors, a person accused in a state court of crime, who desires to avail himself of the fact that they were so excluded in the selection of the grand jury which found the indictment against him, or of the petit jury which tried him, should make the objection in the state court during the trial, and if overruled, should take the question for decision to the highest court to which a writ of error could be sued out from this Court, and failing to do so, he cannot have the adverse decision of the state court reviewed by a circuit court of the United States upon a writ of habeas corpus.

The question raised in this case could have been raised and determined by the trial court in New York on a motion to set aside the indictment.