Itow v. United States

Background

Two men, Itow and Fushimi, were indicted in Alaska for the killing of Frank Dunn on July 14, 1912; the indictment was returned December 13, 1912. A jury found Itow guilty of murder and sentenced him to death, and found Fushimi guilty of manslaughter and sentenced him to 20 years. The Government asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the direct appeal for lack of authority to hear the case directly.

Reasoning

The central question was whether the Supreme Court could review the case directly. The Court explained that the Judicial Code assigns most final review of capital criminal cases from Alaska to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and allows direct Supreme Court review only for cases that actually raised a constitutional question in the trial court. Citing earlier decisions, the Court said a constitutional issue must have been raised and decided below to give the Supreme Court jurisdiction. The recorded assignments of error — requests for a continuance, the jury’s separation with the accused’s consent, a newspaper publication during trial, and admission of a defendant’s statement — did not show any constitutional claim was pressed at trial, so the Court lacked power to take the direct appeal.

Real world impact

The Supreme Court dismissed the direct writ of error for lack of jurisdiction, not on the merits of the criminal convictions. The practical effect is that these convictions must be reviewed by the Ninth Circuit first, and only later, if a constitutional question is properly presented and certified or reviewed, could the Supreme Court consider it.