Overt
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
Open; public. In the law of crimes, overt is applied to " act," to intensify the distinction between a design or intent, and something actually and manifestly done in the execution of it. In the law of sales, market overt (}. B.) is a public market.
Overt act
In modem prosecutions for treason in England, much stress has been laid upon the necessity of making due proof of some manifest, open act of treasonable nature, in order that no one should be condemned for mere treasonable designs or words. It is necessary, in order to a conviction, to substantiate either one overt act by at least two witnesses, or two overt acts of the same character by one witness apiece. The importance of any such rule in the law of treason, in the United States, is much diminished by the careful definitions of treason, which the constitutions prescribe. Overt act, in the act of congress of Feb. 12, 1793, respecting fugitives, &c., means one which is both intended and calculated to elude the master's vigilance.
Jones v. Van Zandt, 5 How. 215, 228.