 More also rejected the argument that criminal writs of error were authorized by § 14 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 ( the " All Writs Act " ) . That section provided , in relevant part , that " all the before @-@ mentioned courts of the United States shall have power to issue . . . all other writs , not specially provided for by statute , which may be necessary for the exercise of their respective jurisdictions , and agreeable to the principles and usages of law . " Following More , the Court did not hear writs of error from federal criminal trials in the circuit courts for 84 years . In 1889 , Congress created a right of appeal by writ of error in capital cases . The Judiciary Act of 1891 ( the " Evarts Act " ) extended this right to serious crimes . And , the Judicial Code of 1911 — which abolished the circuit courts and placed original jurisdiction for the trial of all federal crime in the district courts — granted general appellate jurisdiction . 
