Crews v. United States

WALLER, Circuit Judge.

The beautiful Suwannee River — the mention of which calls to memory a plaintive melody of strumming banjos, humming bees, childhood’s playful hours, a hut among the bushes, and a longing to go 'back to the place where the old folks stay — was the scene of the cruel and revolting crime that provoked the gesture of dealing out justice that is this case.

The defendant, although guilty of a cruel and inexcusable homicide, was indicted and convicted merely of having deprived his helpless, victim of a constitutional right, under strained constructions 1 of an inadequate Federal…