Reports of cases adjudged in the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Volume 22 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ...arrest the offender without warrant. Cited in support of this proposition are the cases of United States v. HaH, Pet. C. C. 390, Fed. Cas. No. 15,316; Com. v. Worcester, 3 Pick. 473; Mclnerney v. Denver, 17 Colo. 302, 29 Pac. 516; Callan v. Wilson, 127 U. S. 540, 32 L. ed. 223, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1301. And it is argued that, inasmuch as the offense is such a crime, the 3d Amendment to the Federal Constitution, which provides that "the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury," and Opinion of the Court. 22 App. the 6th Amendment to the Constitution, which provides that "in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed," imperatively require that such offense shall be tried by a jury. But this argument is more plausible than substantial; and it is an argument that has been repeated in vain ever since the Constitutiou of the United States went into force. There is not, and there never was, any such criminal offense known to the common law as that of fast driving, even on the streets of a great city. The offense that was known to the common law was that of fast driving in such manner and under such circumstances as to endanger the lives of the inhabitants. Fast driving of itself was never an offense at common law. Its denunciation, therefore, by municipal ordinance is not the conversion of a common-law offense into a violation of municipal ordinance. But even if such were the case, it would not follow that the municipal ordinance is a nullity. What Judge Dillon says in his excellent work on Municipal Corporations in this regard, after a full consideration of the authorities, must suff...