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![handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0476 and id is 1 raw text is: Ex PARTE LANGE.
Statement of the case.
Ex PARTE LANGE.
A. The doctrine of this court affirmed, and the cases in support of it cited,
that where a prisoner shows that he is held under a judgment of a
Federal court, made without authority of law, the Supreme Court will,
by writs of habeas corpus and certiorari, look into the record, so far as
to ascertain that fact, and if it is found to be so, will discharge the
prisoner.
2. The general principle asserted as applicable to both civil and criminal
cases, that the judgments, orders, and decrees of the courts of this coun-
try are under their control during the term at which they are made; so
that they may be set aside or modified as law and justice may require.
:8. But it is also declared that this power cannot be so used as to violate the
guarantees of personal rights found in the common law, and in the
constitutions of the States and of the Union.
4. If there is anything settled in the jurisprudence of England and America,
it is that no man shall be twice punished byjudicial judgments for the
same offence.
5. The provisions of the common law and of the Federal Constitution, that
no man shall be twice placed in jeopardy of life or limb, are mainly
designed to prevent a second punishment for the same crime or misde-
meanor.
6. Hence, when a court has imposed fine and imprisonment, where the stat-
ute only conferred power to punish by fine or imprisonment, and the
fine has been paid, it cannot, even during the same term, modify the
judgment by imposing imprisonment instead of the former sentence.
7. The judgment of the court having been executed so as to be a full satis-
faction of one of the alternative penalties of the law, the power of the
court as to that offence is at an end.
6. A second judgment on the same verdict is, under such circumstances, void
for want of power, and it affords no authority to hold the party a pris
oner, and he must be discharged.
ON petition for writs of habeas corpus and certiorari.
Edward Lange filed a petition to this court at a former
day, praying for a writ of habeas corpus to the marshal for
the Southern District of New York, on the allegation that
he was unlawfully imprisoned under an order of the Circuit
Court of the United States for that district. On considera-
tion of the petition, the court was of opinion that the facts
which it alleged very fairly raised the question whether the
Circuit Court, in the sentence which it had pronounced, and
Oct. 1873.]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ussccases0476&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)