Morgan v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court
Morgan v. State, 63 Miss. 162 (Miss. 1885)
Arnold

Morgan v. State

Opinion of the Court

Arnold, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

It is assigned for error that the court below erred in refusing to quash the indictment, and in giving an instruction for the State after the argument for appellant to the jury had closed, and that this instruction was used by the district attorney in his closing argument to the prejudice of appellant. If there was any demurrer or motion to quash the indictment, or if any instruction was given and used as alleged, it is not shown by the record.

The instruction given for the State is not subject to the objections made to it by appellant. It is true that to constitute perjury the swearing must be willful and corrupt, as well as false, but if a person swears to what he knows to be false, it is necessarily willful, and if willful, it is necessarily corrupt. 2 Whart. Cr. L., § 2204; Brown v. The State, 57 Miss. 424.

Affirmed;

Reference

Full Case Name
John Morgan v. State
Cited By
2 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
Perjury. Knowingly swearing falsely. Instruction. In the trial of an indictment charging perjury in giving testimony, an instruction which, in effect, tells the jury to convict if they believe, from the testimony of one witness and corroborating circumstances, that the defendant did testify falsely, as charged in the indictment, and knew, when he did so, that he was swearing falsely, is good, though it omit to charge that the swearing must have been willful and corrupt; for if the defendant testified what he knew to be false, he swore willfully, and if willfully then corruptly also.