Jackson v. United States

The plaintiff in error was indicted, tried, and convicted in the district court of the district of Alaska for the crime of an assault with' a dangerous weapon, and sentenced to 10 years at hard labor in the penitentiary at McNeil’s Island, in the state of Washington. The entire proceedings, from the impaneling of the grand jury to the passing of the sentence by the court, are claimed to be either absolutely null and void or erroneous. The jurisdiction of the court is attacked, and the punishment prescribed claimed to be cruel and inhuman. The case is interesting and important. Prior to the discussion of any points raised by the assignments of error, a brief statement of some of the facts will be made, in order that some of the points will be better understood. From the argument of counsel it appears that in the spring of 1898 one Jeff Smith, who was commonly known, and is designated in the testimony, as “Soapy Smith," a man of alleged desperate character, located, in Skaguay, Alaska, and there conducted a saloon and gambling *603 house, and had gathered around him a half-dozen or more men of like character, as his associates, who are referred to in the testimony as belonging to…