Case Summary

In the fall of 1921, Willard Mathews negotiated a deal in the Douglas County district court whereby he would plead guilty to having embezzled funds from the Pioneer State Bank in Omaha, Nebraska, if the state would drop related charges against two of his colleagues. He was sentenced to between one and ten years at the state penitentiary. After unsuccessfully appealing his conviction in the state supreme court, Mathews petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. He argued that he had embezzled funds during a window in which Nebraska had repealed one set of criminal statutes but not yet replaced them, and that therefore he had violated no law. After hearing the evidence, he was remanded to the custody of the warden.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Carceral

Petition subtype(s)

• Embezzlement

Sites of significance

• State Penitentiary of the State of Nebraska (Lincoln, Nebraska)

Outcome

Writ denied

Fate of bound party

Remained in custody

Case Citation

Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685 - 2009, U.S. District Court for the Lincoln Division of the District of Nebraska, Series: Judge's Dockets, 6/3/1897-12/30/1911, Vol. 2: May 1917 - May 1930, p. 66; Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685 - 2009, U.S. District Court for the Lincoln Division of the District of Nebraska (1907- ), Series: Law Case Files, 1907-1938, No. 490 Law

Source material(s)

Docket | Case File

Length of case file

Between 21 and 30 pages

Repository(s)

• National Archives and Records Administration, Kansas City (Kansas City, Kansas)

State

• Nebraska

Point(s) of law cited

Section 8658 of the Revised Statutes of Nebraska for 1913|Section 6, Chapter 297, Page 951 of the Laws of Nebraska for 1921|Article 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution|Section 9152 of the Revised Statutes of Nebraska for 1913|Division 13, Article 2, Title 6, Chapter 190, Page 791 of the Sessions Laws of Nebraska for 1921|Section 1, Article 2, Chapter 182, Page 689 of the Session Laws of Nebraska for 1921|Article 1, Section 16 of the Nebraska State Constitution|Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution|Article 1, Section 16 of the United States Constitution|Article 2, Page 3145 of the Compiled Statutes of Nebraska for 1922|Mathews v. State, 192 N.W. 966, 109 Neb. 613|Lower v. State, 109 Neb. 590|Davis v. Burke, 179 U.S. 399|Frank v. Mangum, 237 U.S. 309, 328

People

• Mathews, Willard V. (petitioner)
• Fenton, William D. (respondent)
• Priest, John M. (J. M. ) (petitioner attorney)
• Spillman, O. S. (respondent attorney)
• Dort, Lloyd (respondent attorney)
• Munger, Thomas C. (judge)
• Mathews, Willard V. (bound party)
• Fenton, William D. (responding party)
• Fenton, William D. (holding party)

• Additional parties

  Hoyt, R. C. (clerk)

  Nickerson, J. B. (deputy clerk)

  Smith, Ed P. (attorney)

  Stickel, Walter L. (co-defendant)

  Sunderland, Ralph E. (co-defendant)

  Rein, Clifford L. (notary public)

  Mathews, Mrs. W. V. (wife of petitioner)

  Matters, Thomas H. (co-defendant)

  Troup, (judge)

  Brown, Norris (attorney)

  Gurley, (attorney)

  Dorsey, (judge)

  Leslie, Charles (judge)

  Davis, Clarence Alba (attorney general of Nebraska)

  Goss, Charles A. (judge)

  Smith, Robert (clerk)

  Gottneid, Sidney J. (deputy clerk)

  Bayerlein, Frieda C. (notary public)

  Clark, Michael L. (sheriff)

  Farrell, Cornelius (deputy clerk)

  Du Teil, Bertha (deputy clerk)