United States v. Benson

Field, Justice.

The defendants were indicted in the district court for the district of California, at the December term, 1886, for an alleged conspiracy to defraud the United States of §4,952 by the presentation of fictitious and fraudulent claims, knowing them to be such, for pro-tended surveys of public lands. To this indictment three of the defendants appeared,—Benson, Perrin, and Hall,—and each interposed a plea in abatement, tlie substance of which is this: That the grand jury which found the indictment was an illegal and incompetent body, having no authority or jurisdiction to find or…