Stoughton v. State
Stoughton v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The prisoner was convicted, in the circuit court of Perry county, of the murder of J. A. Harvey. He moved for a new trial, because the verdict was contrary to law and evidence, and because the court erred in refusing charges asked by the prisoner, and in giving those asked by the district attorney. On these points we need make no comments. Indeed, on the charges we could not; they are not presented by bill of exceptions, but noted by the clerk as having been given or refused. The law of 1846, which provides for so noting charges that may be given or refused, and makes them part of the record, without bill of exceptions, applies only to civil cases. Hutch. Code, 893.
The case must turn on a different point; the wound was inflicted in Perry county, where the prisoner was indicted, but the death occurred in Harrison county. In such cases there is an express statutory provision requiring that the indictment should be found in the county where the death occurs. Poindexter’s Code, 314. This statute seems to have been overlooked in the subsequent compilations, though it is not repealed, at least we have found no act repealing it. It simply provides that the indictment, found in .the county in which the death may happen,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Samuel Stoughton v. The State of Mississippi
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- The statute (Hutch. Code, 893), which makes instructions of the circuit court parts of the record without bill of exceptions, does not apply to criminal cases. It seems doubtful whether, if a mortai blow were given in one county, and the death happened in another, the party killing could be indicted at common law in either county. However- that may be, in this state, by express statute, Rev. Code (Poindexter), 314, the party may be indicted in the county wherein the death took place; and, in the absence of clear authority at the common law for indicting him in the county where the mortal blow was given, an indictment there could not be sustained. And a prisoner convicted under such an indictment would be remanded to the county where the death occurred, for a new indictment.