Sims v. State
Sims v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Appellant was indicted for unlawful cohabitation with his daughter, Emma Sims. On the trial, the proof showed that Emma Sims was his step-daughter, and not his daughter, and he was acquitted — the court instructing the jury, to acquit on account of the variance.
Afterward, appellant was indicted for the same act and offense, with Emma Sims, his step-daughter, and to this indictment he pleaded the former acquittal. The plea was held insufficient by the court and he was convicted and appealed, and assigns for error, the judgment of the court as to that plea.
As the acquittal on the first indictment resulted from a variance in the allegations of the indictment and the proof, the plea was not a bar to the second prosecution. If what was set out in the second indictment had been proved under the first, there could have been no conviction under the first, and, because this was so, the plea constituted no defense. 1 Bish. Cr. Law, § 1052; 1 Whart. Cr. Law, § 565 ; Code, § 2998.
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- William Sims v. State
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Criminal Law. Former acquittal. Variance. An acquittal because of a variance between the allegations of an indictment and the proof is not a bar to a second prosecution for the same offense. 2. Incest. Plea of former acquittal. Where an indictment alleges incestuous intercourse with a daughter, and upon the trial the proof shows her to be a step-daughter, and for this variance an acquittal is had, a plea to a second indictment charging intercourse with the step-daughter, which sets up the former acquittal, constitutes no defense.