In re Neagle

Plaintiff

Thomas Cunningham, Sheriff of the County of San Joaquin, California

Defendant

David Neagle

Plaintiff's Claim

That in killing Judge David S. Terry, Neagle was merely acting in his capacity as U.S. Marshall, charged with protecting the life of Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field, and that Neagle should therefore not be charged with murder.

Chief Lawyers for Plaintiff

California Attorney General G. A. Johnson, Z. Montgomery

Chief Defense Lawyers

Joseph H. Choate; William Henry Harrison Miller, U.S. Attorney General

Justices for the Court

Samuel Blatchford, Joseph P. Bradley, David Josiah Brewer, Horace Gray, John Marshall Harlan I, Samuel Freeman Miller

Justices Dissenting

Melville Weston Fuller, Lucius Quintus C. Lamar (Stephen Johnson Field did not participate)

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

1890

Decision

That Neagle was indeed acting in his capacity as U.S. Marshall and was therefore not to be indicted for murder.

Related Cases

• Ex Parte Grossman, 267 U.S. 87 (1925).
• Schick v. Reed, 419 U.S. 256 (1974).