United States v. John Henry Smith, Jr.

John Henry Smith, Jr., challenges the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to try him for assaulting a guard at the District of Columbia Department of Corrections Youth Center at Lorton, Virginia. While the United States has territoral jurisdiction over lands on which the District of Columbia’s main reformatory at Lorton is erected, it has not formally accepted, as required by 40 U.S.C. § 255, jurisdiction over the tract where the Youth Center is located. The law Smith violated punishes an assault upon an employee of the District of Columbia…