McKane v. Durston

Upon the trial in one of the courts of New York of an indictment charging John Y. McKane, the present appellant, with having willfully violated certain provisions of the law of that state relating to elections and to the registration of voters, the accused was found guilty, and was adjudged, February 19, 1894, to be imprisoned in the state prison at Sing Sing at hard labor for the term of six years. It was further ordered by the court that the convict be forthwith conveyed to that prison in execution of the sentence. That order was complied with, and he was delivered by the sheriff to the agent and warden of the prison, to be therein confined in conformity with the sentence against him. From the judgment ordering his imprisonment in Sing Sing, McKane prayed and was allowed an appeal to the General Term of the Supreme Court of New York. On the 15th day of March, 1894, his counsel presented to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York an application for a writ of habeas corpus directed to the agent and warden of Sing Sing prison, and requiring him to produce the body of the petitioner before the court and there abide such order as may be made in the premises. The petitioner represented that he was deprived of his liberty in violation of the Constitution of the United States.