Matter of Moran, 203 U.S. 96 (1906)

Please note: this case begins in mid-page. It therefore shares a citation with the last page of the previous case. If you are attempting to follow a link to the last page of 203 U.S. 76, click here.

Matter of Moran

No, 8, Original
Argued October 15, 1906
Decided November 5, 1906
203 U.S. 96

Where the order of the court having authority to designate the place of trial for a newly organized county in Oklahoma is as precise as circumstances permit, the fact that it merely names the town, there being no county or court buildings at the time of trial, does not affect the jurisdiction of the court where it does not appear that the party complaining lost any opportunities by reason of no building’s being named.

Acts of the Legislature of Oklahoma are not laws of the United States within the meaning of § 753, Rev.Stat.

The Fifth Amendment, requiring the presentment or indictment of a grand jury, does not take up unto itself the local law as to how the grand jury shall be made up, and raise the latter to a constitutional requirement.

Under § 10 of the Organic Act of Oklahoma of May 2, 1890, 26 Stat. 85, the place of trial of a crime committed in territory not embraced in any organized county is in the county to which such territory shall be attached at the time of trial, although it might have been attached to another county when the crime was committed.

Courts of Oklahoma Territory have jurisdiction to try a person for crime although committed in a part of the territory not then opened for settlement, it appearing from the act of Congress that title had passed to the territory, and Congress was only exercising control so far as settlement was concerned.

Whether a person on trial is compelled to be a witness against himself, contrary to the Fifth Amendment, because compelled to stand up and walk before the jury, or because the jury was stationed during a recess so as to observe his size and walk, not decided, but held that it did not affect the jurisdiction of the trial court and render the judgment void.

The facts are stated in the opinion.