Home > Great American Court Cases > In re Neagle

Legal Citation: 135 U.S. 1 (1890)

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...