Wellman v. State
Wellman v. State
Opinion of the Court
1. Wellman was indicted and convicted of the offense of simple larceny. The indictment alleged that on the 21st-of January, 1896, he “unlawfully, wrongfully and fraudulently did take and carry away” four hogs, the property of the prosecutor. Before his arraignment and plea,, he filed a special plea in abatement to the indictment, upon-the ground that “one of the grand jurors who found the-indictment in said case was disqualified to serve as a grand juror, for the reason that his name is not among those who were on the qualified list of grand jurors for said county of Camden at the time said indictment was found.”'Upon motion this plea was stricken, and he excepted.
Under the provisions of section 815 of the Penal Code, the jury-boxes in the several counties of this State must be-revised biennially, except in those counties which have an incorporated city of ten thousand inhabitants or more, where it must be done annually. The duty of the jury commissioners in revising the jury-boxes is to select upright and intelligent men to serve as jurors, and from the list so-selected they must select not more than two fifths- of the most experienced, upright and intelligent to serve on the grand jury. It is possible, indeed quite probable, that a person’s name may be on the list of grand jurors for two years and then when the box is again revised his name may be left off of the grand jiuy list and put on the traverse jury list. Between the time when the judge, in accordance with the statute, draws the names of the grand jurors from the grand jury-box' to serve at the next term of the court and the commencement of that term, the jury commissioners may have met and transferred one or more- of the persons drawn to serve on the grand jury from the grand jury-box to that of the traverse jury. In such an event the person so drawn on the grand jury would not be disqualified to-serve thereon, although his name may have been taken from the one box and placed in the other. He would still
2. The accused was convicted on circumstantial testimony solely. The prosecutor testified that he had lost seven head of hogs; that they had ranged in a swamp four miles from his residence; that they were spotted hogs; that they were marked with a swallow-fork and under bit in one ear and a crop and under bit in the other ear; that at the time he lost the hogs he was among them two or three times a week; that the accused lived about four miles from his place; that he had never seen him anywhere about the hogs. Other witnesses testified that in January of the same year the accused brought to the city of Brunswick four hogs about the size of those described by the prosecutor; that in accordance with the city ordinance he registered the earmarks of three of them but failed to register the marks of the fourth, for which failure he was arrested and fined in the police court; that the earmarks of these hogs were the same as the marks of those described by the prosecutor, except that an upper bit in the right ear seems to have been cut and scorched, the scorching to give it the appearance of an old mark. It was also in evidence that accused owned hogs of his own, and that his mark was identical with the mark on the ears of the hogs which he had brought to the city of Brunswick. The larceny was alleged to have been committed in Camden county, some thirty miles from the
Judgment reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- WELLMAN v. State
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published