Whitacre

This is an appeal from an order denying a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The appellant was convicted of the crime of robbery in the first degree in the superior court of Los Angeles county, Cal., the judgment of conviction was affirmed by the District Court of Appeal, and a petition for a rehearing was denied by that court and by the Supreme Court of the state. He then applied to the court below for a writ of habeas corpus, on the ground that upon his trial in the state court the jury were made judges of both the law and the facts, thereby depriving him of his liberty without due process of law, in violation of the Constitution of the United States.

We might say in passing that, if the courts of California see fit to make juries judges of both the law and the facts in criminal eases, we fail to see wherein such a ruling violates any provision of the Constitution of the United States. But it is well settled that we are not at liberty to consider the merits of the question thus presented. Thus, in Urquhart v. Brown, 205 U. S. 179 , 27 S. Ct. 459 , 51 L. Ed. 760 , the appellee was imprisoned under a final judgment of the Supreme Court of the state of Washington, and applied…