Jones v. State
Jones v. State
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the court by
This was a prosecution, by affidavit and information, against the appellant, John Jones, and one Young, whose Christian name was alleged to be unknown, for the crime of grand larceny. On arraignment, the appellant and said Young pleaded to said affidavit and information, that they were not guilty as therein charged. The trial of the cause by a jury resulted in a verdict finding the appellant and said Young guilty, as charged in the information, and affixing the punishment of each of them at imprisonment in the State prison for the period of three years, and a fine of twenty-five dollars each, and disfranchisement and incapacity for holding any office of trust or profit for the term of three years. The ap
In this court, errors have been assigned by the appellant as follows :
1. The affidavit and information filed in said cause, and upon ' which said action is based, do not, with sufficient certainty, state facts sufficient to confer jurisdiction upon the Knox Circuit Court to try said cause.
2. Error committed by the Knox Circuit Court in overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial.
3. The court below had no jurisdiction to try appellant upon the felony charged against him, except upon presentment by indictment, duly returned against him by the grand jury of the court below.
4. The act of March 29, 1879 (Acts of 1879, p. 143), upon which the court below took jurisdiction of this case, is unconstitutional, illegal and void ; and,
5. The facts stated in the affidavit and information herein do not constitute a public offense.
The first question presented and discussed by the appellant’s counsel in his able and exhaustive brief of this cause, is the alleged unconstitutionality of the act of March 29, 1879, “in relation to prosecutions of felonies by affidavit and information in certain cases.” This question has already been carefully considered by this court, and a conclusion has been reached that the act in question is not in conflict with any of the provisions of the constitution of this State, and must, therefore, be regarded as a constitutional and valid law. Heavley v. The State, decided this term; Sturm v. The State, decided at this term. We are content with this conclusion, and the question may be regarded as settled by this court in favor of the constitutionality and validity of the act under consideration. Whatever may have been said in Reed v. The State, 12 Ind. 641, in conflict with this conclusion, is expressly overruled.
The affidavit and information against the appellant and his co-defendant, Young, charged the jurisdictional facts in this case as follows: “That the said John Jones and the said Young, whose Christian name is unknown, are now in custody in the county jail
It is very earnestly insisted by the appellant’s counsel, in the case at bar, “that the evidence entirely fails to prove those jurisdictional facts,” which were necessary to give the trial court jurisdiction of the case. The evidence adduced, for the purpose of establishing the jurisdictional facts charged, was, in substance, as follows :
Henry Freund testified: “I am deputy clerk of this court. No grand jury is in session at this time, nor has there been any at the present term, nor since the affidavit, transcript and other papers in this case were filed in this court.” Thereupon the witness identified the affidavit filed against said defendants, and transcript from the docket of Mayor Searight filed against defendants in this court.
James E. Kackley testified: “ I am the sheriff of Knox county. The defendants were in my custody, in the jail of Knox county, on the 8th day of March, 1881. They were placed in my custody in jail, on a commitment from Mayor Searight (which is thereupon shown him and identified as the one under which they were committed). Jones has not been in jail since the 9th day of March, 1881, at which time he was bailed out.”
The only other evidence, introduced on the trial, which tended to prove that the appellant and his co-defendant, Young, were or had been in custody, on a charge of the particular felony mentioned in the affidavit and information, was the affidavit and transcript from the docket of Mayor Searight, identified by the deputy-clerk, and the commitment of the defendants, identified by the sheriff. There is much uncertainty and room for doubt, as it seems to us,
We find no error in the record which would authorize a reversal of the judgment below.
The judgment is affirmed with costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.