One controversy was the case of "Prigg v. Pennsylvania". Edward Prigg, a citizen of Maryland, was indicted by a Pennsylvania court for attempting to kidnap a black woman in York County to return her to Maryland as a fugitive slave. He was tried and convicted by a local court in Pennsylvania, but the case was eventually appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. Prigg had originally shown his legal warrant to the Pennsylvania court, but it had been unlawfully ignored, which demonstrated that the Fugitive Slave Act really depended on state judges, not federal law.