Cain v. State
Cain v. State
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff in error was indicted for betting on the election of 1848, for electors for president and vice-president. Several reasons are urged for the reversal of the judgment, which we cannot notice. The statute which requires the clerk to take down the charges given or refused, and make them a part of the record, without bill of exceptions, does not apply to criminal cases. We therefore pass over the alleged error in this particular.
A motion was made in arrest of judgment, because the indictment does not charge that the election was holden. The indictment charges that the bet was “upon the result of a certain election to be holden on the seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, according to law in said state, for six electors, &c.” The elec
A new trial was moved for on the evidence. It was in proof that the parties mutually agreed that a present of a coat should be made to the defendant, if the Cass electors obtained a majority of 2000 votes, but if they did not, the defendant was to make the other party a present of a coat. This was mere evasion. It was in proof that the election was afterwards holden, and the bet was paid in money. There is no pretence for holding the verdict to be against law or evidence.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Dempsey B. Cain v. The State of Mississippi
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- The statute which requires the clerk to take down the charges given or refused by the circuit judge, and makes them a part of the record without bill of exceptions, does not apply to criminal cases. In an indictment for betting on a presidential election, it is not necessary to allege that the election was held ; the indictment alleged the bet to have been made upon the result of that election, “to be holden ” on a certain day ; the election is provided for by a public law; the event was therefore sufficiently certain. The statutes against gaming are remedial and not penal; and are therefore not to be construed strictly. A. agreed with B. that if the Cass electors obtained a majority of two thousand votes in this state, at the recent presidential election, he would make B. a present of a coat, but if they did not, B. was to make him a present of a coat; after the election B. paid A. the money instead of the coat: Held, the agreement was a mere evasion, and B. being indicted for the bet and convicted, must undergo the penalty of the law.