GLUCKSMAN
v.
HENKEL, UNITED STATES MARSHAL

U.S. | 1911-05-29
No. 944
221 U.S. 508 Supreme Court of the United States (1911) Negative Treatment
Also reported at: 55 L. Ed. 830 · 31 S. Ct. 704 · 1911 U.S. LEXIS 1751 · SCDB 1910-157
Cited by 76 cases

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Synopsis

Glucksman, a leather merchant from Lodz arrested in New York, was ordered extradited to Russia on charges of forging promissory notes and fraudulently obtaining goods by uttering those forged instruments. The Supreme Court affirmed the extradition, holding that while extradition proceedings need not meet all the technical requirements of a criminal trial, evidence establishing reasonable grounds to believe the accused committed the crime is sufficient to warrant surrender to a foreign government under an extradition treaty.


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Opinion of the Court
Mr. Justice Holmes

Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a proceeding by habeas corpus and certiorari to test the validity of a commitment of the appellant, Glucksman, for extradition to Russia. The Circuit Court dismissed the writs and remanded the prisoner, who thereupon appealed to this court. The complaint three times charges the forgery of the signature of one Tugendriach to bills of exchange for. one hundred roubles, and following each such charge alleges the fraudulent utterance of bills for the same sum to merchants named Bierenzweig, Traidenraich and Selinsky, and obtaining goods from them of that value. This last is alleged to constitute the crime of uttering forged paper, although it is not expressly alleged that the bills fraudulently uttered were forged, as pretty plainly is meant. The ground of the appeal is that there is no sufficient evidence to warrant extradition on the charge. It is common in extradition cases to attempt to bring to bear all the factitious niceties of a criminal trial at common law. But it is a waste of time. For while of course a man is not to be sent from the country merely upon demand or surmise, yet if there is presented, even in somewhat untechnical form according to our ideas, such reasonable ground to suppose him guilty as to make it proper that he should be tried, good faith to the demanding government requires his surrender. Grin v. Shine, 187 U. S. 181, 184. See Pierce v. Creecy, 210 U. S. 387, 405. We are bound by the existence of an extradition treaty to assume that the trial will be fair.

The evidence in this case seems to us sufficient to require us to affirm the judgment of the Circuit Court.

According to the translation of the Russian documents accompanying the demand, Birenzweig, a merchant, 'deposed’ on July 7, 1910, that the Lodz merchant, Leiba Glikeman, in the previous June endorsed to him in payment for goods a note for one hundred roubles purporting to be drawn by a Tugendreich who resides in Ozorkov; that a few.days later he learned that Glikeman had left those parts and that he was confirmed by Tugendreich in his suspicion that the note was spurious. Fraidenreich, a merchant, deposed to like effect, giving the name of the purported drawer of the note as Moschek-Leiba Tugendreich. And so did Zelinsky. Birenzweig and Fraidenreich produced their notes. Moschek-Leiba Jakubov-Maerov Tugendreich deposed that life was a merchant in Ozorkov, that he never drew any notes in Glikeman’s favor, that the signatures on the notes produced by Birenzweig and Fraidenreich represented a kind of imitation of his signature, and that the text of his notes was written by Glikeman, (with whom he had had dealings).

There is no rational doubt that the evidence tends to show that Leiba Glikeman, a leather merchant of Lodz, forged notes of the above-named Tugendreich and disappeared before July 7, 1910. The prisoner by his own admission was a leather merchant and came from Lodz, arriving in New York on or about August 3, 1910. When first arrested he said that he had enemies on the other side who were bringing these charges against him, and, as we think it appears, tried to bribe the officers to let him go. He also said that the spelling of his name Glueksman was a typographical error, that his name was Lewek Glicksman. The Russian magistrate sends a description of Leiba-Levek Pinkusov Glikeman, which is worthless, as such descriptions generally are, but adds certainty to the correspondence of the name of the .person referred to in the proceedings in Russia, with that of the prisoner, and after the description the magistrate adds: “A photograph of Glikeman is hereto attached,” with his seal on the card, and the photograph represents the prisoner. It is objected that there is no deposition that the photograph represents the party accused, and it may be that in other circumstances we should require further proof. But the magistrate in certifying as if of his own knowledge, presumably had some reason for doing so, and taking the convergence of the other facts mentioned toward the prisoner as the party accused, we cannot say that the Commissioner was wrong in finding the identity made out.

One of two subordinate matters need but a bare mention. . The complaint speaks of bills of exchange, the evidence shows the forged instruments to have been promissory notes. The instruments are identified sufficiently and for this purpose no m..ore is needed. Neither Wright v. Henkel, 190 U. S. 40, nor Pettit v. Walshe, 194 U. S. 205, indicates that because the law of New York in this case may determine whether , the prisoner is charged with an extraditable crime, it is to determine the effect of such a variance between evidence and complaint. That is a matter to be decided on general principles, irrespective of the law of the Státe. The complaint is sworn to upon information and belief, but it is supported, by the testimony of witnesses who are stated to have deposed and whom therefore we must presume to have been sworn. That is enough. Rice v. Ames, 180 U. S. 371, 375.

Judgment affirmed.


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Citator

Cited By (23 total)

  • Fernandez v. Phillips, 268 U.S. 311 (U.S. 1925)
    …l, it has been presented as if this were the final stage and every technical detail were to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. This is not the law. Form is not to be insisted upon beyond the requirements of safety and justice. Glucksman v. Henkel, 221 U. S. 508, 512. Competent-evidence to establish reasonable grounds is not necessarily evidence competent to convict. See e. g., Bingham v. Bradley, 241 U. S. 511, 517. Collins v. Loisel, 259 U. S. 309, 317. 1 Wigmore, Evidence, 2d ed., § 4(6), p. 21. The for…
    1 / 2
  • Collins v. Loisel, 259 U.S. 309 (U.S. 1922)
    …pers tended to establish more than a broken promise or common-law cheating; and' according to the law of Louisiana they furnished “ such reasonable' ground to suppose him guilty as to make it proper that he should be tried.” See Glucksman v. Henkel, 221 U. S. 508, 512. Fourth. Finally Collins contends that the evidence of criminality was not such as under the law of Louisiana would have justified his apprehension and commitment for trial if the crime or offense had been committed there. The argument is that…
    1 / 2
  • Factor v. Laubenheimer, 290 U.S. 276 (U.S. 1933)
    …e fugitive is found. Wright v. Henkel, 190 U.S. 40, 58; Kelly v. Griffin, 241 U.S. 6, 14, 15. Bingham v. Bradley, 241 U.S. 511, 517-518. Collins v. Loisel, 259 U.S. 309, 311-312, 317. See Pettit v. Walshe, 194 U.S. 205, 217-218. Glucksman v. Henkel, 221 U.S. 508, 513. The lower courts have adhered to the same rule. In re Muller, 17 Fed. Cas. 975. Cohn v. Jones, 100 Fed. 639, 645-646. In re Frank, 107 Fed. 272, 277. Powell v. United States, 206 Fed. 400, 403. Collier, v. Vaccaro, 51 F. (2d) 17, 19. Bernstein…

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