In June 1869 Edward M. Yerger stabbed to death Maj. Joseph G. Crane, who was the acting mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.

Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase held that while the United States Congress had enacted legislation in 1868 eliminating one route to a habeas corpus hearing before the court (see Ex parte McCardle, 74 U.S. 506 (1868)), the Court could still hear cases of a similar nature in the first instance under the Judiciary Act of 1789.

Chase concluded that the Court had jurisdiction to hear the case and the power to direct its writ at a military officer.

At this point the attorney general and Yerger's counsel worked out a compromise in which the prisoner was turned over to civilian authorities for prosecution in Mississippi.

Yerger was placed in a Mississippi jail, but released on bail and quickly moved to Baltimore, where he died in 1875, never having been tried for murder.