State v. Guthrie
State v. Guthrie
Opinion of the Court
The indictment charged that the defendant, for a certain consideration, had agreed to abstain
Code, section 4889, provides as follows: “If any person, having knowledge of the commission of any offense punishable with imprisonment in the penitentiary for life, take any money or valuable consideration or gratuity, or any promise therefor, upon an agreement or understanding, expressed or implied, to compound or conceal such offense, or not to prosecute the same, or not to give evidence thereof, he shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not more than six years, or be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars.” Section 4890 of the Code provides as follows: “If any person, having knowledge of the commission of any offense punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a limited term of years, is guilty of the offense described in the preceding section, he shall be imprisoned in the county jail not more than one year, .and be fined not exceeding four hundred dollars.” It will be seen that' in both of these sections relating to the compounding of felonies imprisonment in the penitentiary for life, or for a limited term of years, is an essential ingredient of the offense.
But the state contends that section 5301 of the Code makes it a crime to compound a misdemeanor, and insists that the court was in error in sustaining the demurrer. The position of the state cannot be sustained. Sections 4889 -and 4890 are the only sections of the Code, so far as we are advised, that make it a crime to compound an offense. They are both found in title 24, chapter 7, under the head of “Offenses Against Public Justice,” while sec
The trial court was, therefore, right in sustaining the demurrer and in discharging the defendant, and its judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State of Iowa v. W. C. Guthrie
- Status
- Published