The first step in the course of procedure in criminal causes is the apprehension of the person or persons charged with having committed a crime; and this is usually brought about by procuring a warrant from a magistrate or other proper court if there is reasonable evidence to authorize an arrest. Statutes exist in the several states covering this subject.

But the law does not require that a warrant shall be procured in the first instance in every case. By the common law as well as by statute, it is not only the right but the duty of any private person, or peace officer who is present and sees a felony committed, to arrest the felon forthwith to prevent his escape.1

There is another species of arrest wherein both officer and private men are concerned, and that is upon a hue and cry raised upon a felony committed. This is the old common law process of pursuing with horn and with voice all felons and such as have dangerously wounded another.2

But before a private person is authorized to make an arrest without a warrant it must appear that a felony was in fact committed.3

But an officer having reasonable grounds to believe that a person has committed a felony may arrest without a warrant, though the crime was not committed in his presence.4

1 4 Blackstone Com., 293; Long vs. State, 12 Ga., 293. 2 4 Blackstone Com., 293.

3 Holley vs. Mix, 3 Wend., (N. Y.), 360; Dodds vs. Board, 43 Ill., 95.