Clawson v. United States - 114 U.S. 477 (1885)

U.S. Supreme Court

Clawson v. United States, 114 U.S. 477 (1885)

Clawson v. United States

Argued April 8, 1885

Decided April 20, 1885

114 U.S. 477


Under § 5 of the Act of Congress of March 22, 1882, 22 Stat. 30, which provides,

"That in any prosecution for bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation under any statute of the United States, it shall be sufficient cause of challenge to any person drawn or summoned as a juryman or talesman that he believes it right for a man to have more than one living and undivorced wife at the same time,"

the proceedings to empanel the grand jury which finds an indictment for one of the offenses named under a statute of the United States against a person not before held to answer are a part of the prosecution, and the indictment is good although persons drawn and summoned as grand jurors were excluded by the court from serving on the grand jury on being challenged by the United States, for the cause mentioned, the challenges being found true.

The Statute applies to grand jurors.

Where, under § 4 of the Act of Congress of June 23, 1874, 18 Stat. 254, "in relation to courts and judicial officers in the Territory of Utah," in the trial of an indictment, the names in the jury box of 200 jurors, provided for by that section, are exhausted when the jury is only partly impaneled, the district court may issue a venire to the United States marshal for the territory to summon jurors from the body of the Judicial District, and the jury may be completed from persons thus summoned.

This writ of error was sued out to review an indictment and conviction of the plaintiff in error for polygamy and for cohabiting with more than one woman against the laws of the United States.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.

Page 114 U. S. 478
