District of Columbia v. Rubert
District of Columbia v. Rubert
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
I have been requested to announce the decision of the court in this case. The case comes here to be heard in the first instance upon the certificate of the justice holding the Criminal Court, upon a motion in arrest of judgment and a motion for a new trial.
The case originated in the Police Court upon an information charging the defendant with keeping an unlicensed bar. He was arraigned on the 19th of January, 1888, and pleaded not guilty; he was tried the same day, adjudged guilty and was sentenced, and from the sentence he took an appeal to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and in default of $300 bail he was committed to jail. On
So far as the motion in arrest of judgment is concerned, it is apparent that there is nothing in the record upon which
With reference to the motion for a new trial, it will be readily seen that, in the order of tilings, after having pleaded to the merits it was too late to plead in abatement, and that without considering the question whether such a plea could be offered or received in the Criminal Court. This court has no difficulty over the question as to the right to file such a jilea in the Criminal Court. Such a plea might be filed by consent, or under some circumstances it might be filed by the grace of the court, but there is no right in the defendant after his case had been tried in the Police Court and is before the Criminal Court upon an appeal, to withdraw his plea of not guilty and jilead in abatement. So that there cannot possibly be any ground for error in the trial -in the Criminal Court. This court, however, has no difficulty over the doctrine of waiver. There is no doubt that many rights of a defendant in a criminal prosecution may be waived either expressly or by implication. This defendant had Iris opportunity in the Police Court to plead in abatement. He was arraigned there under the name of Michael Rubert, and he pleaded not guilty. It was perfectly competent for him to have agreed to be tried either under the name of Michael Rubert, or under any other name, and if the circumstances of his pleading are such as to indicate an implied waiver, that may be just as absolute against him as if he had expressly waived his right. Not only did he plead not guilty in the Police Court and go to trial, and was .convicted, sentenced, and appealed under that name, but on the 25th day of January, 1888, six days there
It is claimed that this right is a fight which the defendant has by virtue of Sec. 773 of the Revised Statutes of the District of Columbia, inasmuch as that section provides that the case shall be tried in the Supreme Court as though it “had originated therein.” This section is as follows:
“Appeals from the Police Court shall be tried on the information filed in the court below, certified to the Supreme Court, by a jury in attendance thereat, as though the case had originated therein, and the judgment in the' Supreme Court shall be final in the case.”
The original act of Congress of July 17, 1870,, Sec. 3, reads, “That prosecutions in said Police Court shall be by information under oath, without indictment by grand'jury or trial by petit jury, but any party deeming himself aggrieved by the judgment of said court may appeal to the Criminal Court, held by a justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and in such case the appeal shall be tried on the information filed in the court below, certified to said Criminal Court, by a jury in attendance thereat, as though the case had originated therein.”
It would appear from the language of the original act, that by this section, it was not intended that a case, when appealed from the Police Court to the Criminal Court, should be tried in the Criminal Court as if there had been no trial in the Police Court, but that it should be tried in the‘Criminal
Among several cases to like effect the court will refer to one which is found in 12 Allen, 539, the case of Commonwealth vs. Thomas Darcey. The case is identical in every particular apparently with the case now being disposed of. It appears that the defendant, being a common seller of spirituous and intoxicating liquor, was originally tried before a trial justice, bv whom he was convicted upon a plea of not guilty. The defendant thereupon appealed to the Superior Court. When arraigned in the Superior Court, before Bingham, J., the defendant proposed to plead that his true name was Dorsey, and that he was called and known by no other name than Dorsey; but the judge refused to admit such plea. The defendant was then tried and convicted, and alleged exceptions. It was claimed in argument that the appeal opened all issues of fact which were open before the trial justice. Hoar, J., says :
“ Misnomer can only be taken advantage of by a plea in abatement, and a plea of not guilty to a criminal charge is a waiver of any objection of misnomer. The appeal from the judgment of a trial justice opens the issues which were made by the defendant before him. But after a plea of not guilty, a plea of misnomer in abatement could not be made*213 before the trial justice; .and, we think, cannot be made at any subsequent stage of the case. If the defendant had pleaded in abatement before the justice, and judgment had been rendered against him upon the plea, his appeal would have re-instated him in all his rights of defense. But there is no reason why he should have a second opportunity to make a dilatory plea which he has expressly waived. He can have all the advantages resulting from an acquittal or conviction by proving, whenever it becomes material, that he is the person who was acquitted or convicted by the name to which he pleaded. And this he must do if he had been indicted and tried by his true name.”
There is nothing in this case to commend it to the court, or to justify any stretching of the ordinary rule. The motion for a new trial and the motion in arrest of judgment must be each overruled, and the case remanded to the Criminal Court for sentence or such proceedings as the justice thereof may think proper.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. v. MICHAEL RUBERT
- Status
- Published