State v. Johnson
State v. Johnson
Opinion of the Court
•Opinion, delivered by
The whole of these objections resolve themselves into the following points: 1st. Is the offence charged in either court, indictable by the law of the land? 2nd. If so, then are the offences sufficiently charged by the indictment? By the act of the general assembly of 1835, revised code, 372, respecting justices of the peace, sec. 1, it is enacted, that thereafter, no assault and battery or affray shall be indictable, but all such offences shall be prosecuted and punished in a summary manner, before justices of the peace, as hereinafter provided. 2nd. The' jurisdiction of justices of the peace shall not extend to trial or punishment in any case of riot, rout, or unlawful assembly, nor to any assault and battery, which by the then existing laws, may be punished by imprisonment, or by corporeal punishment, or by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, but such offence shall be punished by indictment. By the 34th section of the áct respecting crimes, R. C. 171, it is declared, that every person who shall be convicted of an assault with intent to commit any robbery, burglary, rape, manslaughter, or any other felony, the punishment of which is not hereinbefore prescribed, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary “O* eedin§ five 7eara>
The^ first count charges, the assault was committed with intent to wound. This is not made an offence by the statute respecting crimes. It does not come within the 31st section: because that section requires all the assaults and batteries therein mentioned, to be done with malice aforethought. This indictment does not so charge the assault. The assault therefore, with intent to wound,, is only common assault and battery before a justice of the peace, though made with a deadly weapon.
As to the second count in the indictment, we are of opinion the offence there charged comes within the 34th
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