In re Ross
Case Date: 05/08/1891
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In re Ross or Ross v. McIntyre, 140 U.S. 453 (1891), was a United States Supreme Court case decided on May 21, 1891. It dealt with the application of US law to foreign sailors on US flagged ships while in another country.
John M. Ross, a sailor on the American ship Bullion, was convicted of murder on the ship while it was in Yokohama before the US consul general at Kanagawa. He was sentenced to death, but President Rutherford B. Hayes commuted the sentence to a life sentence of hard labor at Albany penitentiary. Although Ross accepted the commutation, he later sought a writ of habeas corpus for his release on the grounds that having been born on Prince Edward Island he was a British subject and so not subject to the consular tribunal.
The court upheld the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
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