ted, imposing
upon the Governor of each State the duty to deliver up fugitives from
justice found in such State.[192] The Supreme Court has accepted this
contemporaneous construction as establishing the validity of this
legislation.[193] The duty to surrender is not absolute and unqualified;
if the laws of the State to which the fugitive has fled have been put in
force against him, and he is imprisoned there, the demands of those laws
may be satisfied before the duty of obedience to the requisition
arises.[194] In Kentucky _v._ Dennison[195] the Court held, moreover,
that this statute was merely declaratory of a moral duty; that the
Federal Government "has no power to impose on a State officer, as such,
any duty whatever, and compel him to perform it; * * *"[196] and
consequently that a federal court could not issue a mandamus to compel
the governor of one State to surrender a fugitive to another. In 1934
Congress plugged the loophole exposed by this decision by making it
unlawful for any person to flee from one State to another for the
purpose of avoiding prosecution in certain cases.[197]

FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE

To be a fugitive from justice within the meaning of this clause, it is
not necessary that the party charged should have left the State after an
indictment found, or for the purpose of avoiding a prosecution
anticipated or begun. It is sufficient that the accused, having
committed a crime within one State and having left the jurisdiction
before being subjected to criminal process, is found within another
State.[198] The motive which induced the departure is immaterial.[199]
Even if he were brought involuntarily into the State where found by
requisition from another State, he may be surrendered to a third State
upon an extradition warrant.[200] A person indicted a second time for
the same offense is nonetheless a fugitive from justice by reason of the
fact that after dismissal of the first indictment, on which he was
originally indicted, he left the State with the knowledge of, or without
objection by, State authorities.[201] But a defendant cannot be
extradited if he was only constructively present in the demanding State
at the time of the commission of the crime charged.[202] For the purpose
of determining who is a fugitive from justice, the words "treason,
felony or other crime" embrace every act forbidden and made punishable
by a law of a State,[203] including misdemeanors.[204]

PROCEDURE FOR REMOVAL