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MILLER V. TEXAS, 153 U. S. 535 (1894)

153 U. S. 535

U.S. Supreme Court

Miller v. Texas, 153 U.S. 535 (1894)

Miller v. Texas

No. 1166

Submitted April 23, 1894

Decided May 14, 1894

153 U.S. 535

Syllabus

This Court expresses no opinion as to the validity or invalidity of the writ of error in this case.

When the record in a case brought by writ of error from a state court shows nothing of what took place in the state court of original jurisdiction, and in the appellate state court no objection raising a federal question during the trial and before judgment, but such question is raised for the first time in the appellate court on a motion for a rehearing, the writ of error must be dismissed upon the ground that the federal question is not properly presented by the record.

Motion to dismiss. The plaintiff in error was indicted by the grand jury of Dallas County, Texas, for the murder of one Riddle on June 18, 1892. He was convicted July 23, 1892, and sentenced to death. From the judgment of the District Court of Dallas County, before which he was tried, he appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, the court of last resort in criminal cases, where the judgment of the court below was affirmed. A motion for a rehearing was then made and overruled. Defendant thereupon sued out this writ, assigning as error that the statute of the Texas prohibiting the carrying of dangerous weapons on the person, by authority of which statute the court charged the jury that, if defendant was on a public street carrying a pistol, he was violating the law, infringed the right of the defendant as a citizen of the United States, and was in conflict with the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, providing that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; second, that the same statute, which provided that any person carrying arms in violation of the previous section, might be arrested without warrant, under which the court charged the jury that defendant, if he were carrying arms in violation of the statute, was subject to arrest clubjuris

Page 153 U. S. 536

without warrant, was in contravention of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which provides that the right of the people to be secure in their persons against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which provide that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and that no state shall pass or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.


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