Apapas v. United States, 233 U.S. 587 (1914)
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Scribd Government DocsApapas v. United States, 233 U.S. 587 (1914)
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Scribd Government Docs233 U.S.
587
34 S.Ct. 704
58 L.Ed. 1104
AMBROSIO APAPAS, Cornelio Lubo, Francisco Lubo, et al.,
Plffs. in Err.,
v.
UNITED STATES.
No. 746.
Argued April 8, 1914.
Decided May 11, 1914.
Messrs. Miguel Estudillo and Theodore Martin for plaintiffs in error.
Assistant Attorney General Adkins for defendant in error.
Mr. Chief Justice White delivered the opinion of the court:
Ten persons described as Indians were, in July, 1912, indicted for the murder of
William H. Stanley, a white person, 'at, upon, and within the limits of a United
States Indian Reservation known as the Cahuilla Indian Reservation in the
county of Riverside, within the southern division of the southern district of
California, and within the jurisdiction' of the court below, in violation of
273, 275, and 328 of the Penal Code of 1909. [35 Stat. at L. 1143, 1151, chap.
321, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, pp. 1671, 1972, 1685.] As the result of a
trial, four of the accused were acquitted, and the six who are plaintiffs in error
here were convicted of murder in the second degree, and sentenced to ten years'
imprisonment each, and prosecute this direct writ of error to reverse such
conviction and sentence. There are one hundred assignments of error, but
before we come to consider them we must dispose of a motion made by the
government to dismiss on the ground that we are without jurisdiction because
the case is susceptible only of review by the circuit court of appeals of the ninth
circuit.
Undoubtedly, under the general provisions of 128 of the Judicial Code [36
Stat. at L. 1133, chap. 231, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 193], power to
review is lodged in the circuit court of appeals of the ninth circuit, and our
authority, if any to consider the case, depends, therefore, upon whether it
comes within the class of cases authorized to be brought directly here from a
trial court under the provisions of 238. By such section, in addition to the
power conferred to bring directly to this court a question of jurisdiction of a
trial court as a Federal court, under the conditions and subject to the limitations
stated, the right to directly review in a case of this kind is conferred only 'in any
case that involves the construction or application of the Constitution of the
United States; in any case in which the constitutionality of any law of the
United States, or the validity or construction of any treaty made under its
authority, is drawn in question; and in any case in which the constitution or law
of a state is claimed to be in contravention of the Constitution of the United
States.'
3
The settled significance of these provisions we have just pointed out in the case
of Itow v. United States, just decided [233 U. S. 581, 58 L. ed. , 34 Sup.
Ct. Rep. 699], and under the principle there applied it follows that we must
determine the right to direct review by ascertaining whether any of the issues
enumerated in the provisions of 238 were below involved in the cause.
Coming to apply this test, only three out of the matters assigned as error have
any conceivable relation to the conditions defined by the statute as essential to
give the right to a direct review. They are: (1) a challenge of the jurisdiction of
the court below; (2) a contention as to the effect of the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo [9 Stat. at L. 922]; (3) an assertion that a constitutional question was
involved in the action of the trial court in admitting over objection, testimony as
to a statement or admission of Ambrosio Apapas, one of the accused.
As to the first, while it was raised below, it is obviously inadequate to sustain
the right to direct review, since, under the writ of error, the whole case is
brought here, and not the question of jurisdiction alone, as provided in 238,
and because there in no certificate as to the jurisdiction, as required by the
section. Maynard v. Hecht, 151 U. S. 324, 38 L. ed. 179, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 353;
Chappell v. United States, 160 U. S. 499, 507, 40 L. ed. 510, 512, 16 Sup. Ct.
Rep. 397; Courtney v. Pradt, 196 U. S. 89, 91, 92, 49 L. ed. 398, 399, 25 Sup.
Ct. Rep. 208.
While the second contention based upon the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was
raised in the lower court, it in no sense involved the validity or construction of
the treaty, and therefore affords no support for the right to directly review. In
substance the proposition concerning the treaty is this: that as the ancestors of
the accused prior to the termination of the war with Mexico were citixens of
Mexico, and became by the were citizens of Mexico, and became by the the
state of California, they were therefore not amenable to prosecution in the
courts of the United States for the crime of murder committed within the state
of California, however much they may have been susceptible of being
prosecuted for such crime in an appropriate state court. But assuming, for
argument's sake, the premise based on the treaty to be sound, and disregarding,
for brevity's sake, the fact that the accused were tribal Indians, leading a tribal
life, and living on a tribal reservation under the control of the United States, the
deduction based on the premise is so absolutely devoid of merit as not in any
real sense to involve the construction of the treaty. We so say because the
prosecution was for murder committed by Indians on a United States Indian
reservation, and therefore was for a crime against the authority of the United
States, expressly punishable by statute ( 328, Penal Code), and within the
cognizance of the courts of the United States, without reference to the
citizenship of the accused, as settled by a long line of anthority. United States v.
Kagama, 118 U. S. 375, 30 L. ed. 228, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1109; United States v.
Celestine, 215 U. S. 278, 54 L. ed. 195, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 93; Donnelly v.
United States, 228 U. S. 270, 57 L. ed. 831, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 449, Ann. Cas.
1913E, 710; United States v. Sandoval, 231 U. S. 39, 58 L. ed. , 34 Sup.
Ct. Rep. 1. Indeed, in answering the argument of the government on the motion
to dismiss, if not in express terms, at least virtually, it is conceded that the two
propositions we have disposed of thus are inadequate to sustain the resort to a
direct writ of error. But it is urged that the third contention plainly is sufficient
for that purpose, that contention, as we have said, being based upon an
exception taken to the action of the trial court in receiving testimony
concerning an alleged statement or admission made by one of the accused,
Apapas. But we search the record in vain to find the slightest reference made to
the Constitution of the United States at the time the objection referred to was
taken, or anything whatever to indicate in any manner that the attention of the
court below was directed to the fact that there was any controversy or dispute
involving the Constitution of the United States.
6
Under this condition, as pointed out in the case of Itow v. United States, supra,
there is no ground whatever for saying that a constitutional right was involved
within the exceptions created by 238 so as to justify disregarding the regular
course of judicial procedure by coming directly to this court. The theory upon
which it is insisted in argument that the right to direct review results because of
the action of the trial court as to the admission of the statement is based upon
the premise that because the Constitution guaranteed against compulsory selfincrimination, therefore any objection made to the admission of the statement
or confession by the accused necessarily and inherently involved a
constitutional right, and amounted to a statement of the same, although no
express mention was made of the Constitution, and nothing appears to indicate
that any contention whatever existed as to the significance and operation of the
Constitution. But this proposition, if carried to its legitimate conclusion, would
embrace every conceivable controversy as to every possible right, since, under
a constitutional system of government, all rights, in their last analysis, are
referable to the safeguards of the Constitution. But we need not further
demonstrate the unsoundness of the contention, since it is directly in conflict
with the settled rule which we have just re-stated in the Itow Case. And
although to go further is superfluous, to prevent misconception or unfounded
inferences as to what we decide, we say that must not be understood as holding
that, even although it be assumed, for the sake of argument, that the
constitutional guaranty against compulsory self-incrimination would apply to
an objection made to the offer in evidence of an admission by an accused
person, it would follow that such guaranty would be involved in an objection to
the admission in evidence of a confession in the sense of 238, even if, in
making the objection, the guaranty of the Constitution was expressly referred
to, unless there was some real controversy concerning the meaning of the
constitutional guaranty. We make this reservation because it is quite apparent
that such an objecion, in the absence of some difference as to the significance
of the Constitution, might well involve but the exericse of discretion as to the
order or method of proff, and the calling into play of judgment to determine
whether or not the proof as offered brought the question which was to be
decided within the undisputed scope of the constitutional safeguard. In other
words, we do not hold that any and every objection to the admission of a
statement or confession of an accused can be made to involve the construction
of the Constitution merely be referring to that instrument when in substance and
effect there is no controversy concerning the Constitution, but only a contention
as to the methods of procedure. Conceptions which are well illustrated by the
record before us, where the entire argument concerning the Constitution is
based on the following objection taken to the admission of the statement of the
accused: Counsel for accused, 'One minute. We object that there is no proper
foundation laid for a confession, as there is no evidence to show that there was
any (no) inducement or immunity offered, or what the circumstances were
under which the statement was made.'
7
