U.S. Supreme Court BOWEN v. JOHNSTON, 306 U.S. 19 (1939)

[Page 306 U.S. 19, 21]

Seth W. Richardson, of Washington, D.C., for petitioner.

Bates Booth, of Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Chief Justice HUGHES delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner was convicted, in 1933, in the District Court of the Northern District of Georgia, of murder committed in 1930 on the Government Reservation known as the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park within the exterior limits of the State of Georgia. He was sentenced to imprisonment for life and is confined in the prison at Alcatraz, California.

In 1937, he presented a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the District Judge of the Northern District of California alleging that the indictment was void, and no legal judgment could be based thereon, as it failed to show jurisdiction over the person and subject matter; that the United States did not have exclusive jurisdiction over the Park. [Footnote 1] He also alleged that on his trial the court did not have the evidence taken down and preserved so that he might appeal, and that, upon this ground and others, he had been deprived of his liberty without due process of law. A copy of the indictment was annexed to the petition. Pursuant to an order to show cause, the Warden made return showing the judgment and the record of commitment. On the return day there was no appearance of petitioner's attorneys, and no evidence, apart from the return and the attached exhibits, was offered. The petition was submitted and later was de-

[Page 306 U.S. 19, 29]

dents thereon, except land and such other property as the general government may desire for its use, and that the property belonging to persons residing within said ceded territory shall be liable to State and county taxes, the same as if they resided elsewhere, and that citizens of this State in said ceded territory shall retain all rights of State suffrage and citizenship;'

Later Acts of cession contained a similar reservation as to criminal jurisdiction. [Footnote 3]

[Page 306 U.S. 19, 30]

United States over that part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park located within the State of Georgia' and that violations of law occurring on the ceded lands are enforceable only by the proper authorities of the United States. As this administrative construction is a permissible one we find it persuasive and we think that the debated question of jurisdiction should be settled by construing the Act of 1927 in the same way.

On this ground, the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming the order of the District Court denying the petition for habeas corpus, is affirmed.

Affirmed. Footnotes

Footnote 1 Criminal Code, Sec. 272, Third, 18 U.S.C. 451, 18 U.S.C.A. 451, subd. 3.

Footnote 2 26 Stat. 827, 36 Stat. 1157, Jud.Code, sec. 238, 28 U.S.C.A. 345.

Footnote 3 Georgia Laws, 1893, p. 110; 1895, p. 77; 1901, p. 85; 1902, p. 110.

Footnote 4 Transferred to the National Parks Service, Department of the Interior by Executive Order No. 6166, June 10, 1933.