State v. Prude

Mississippi Supreme Court
State v. Prude, 76 Miss. 543 (Miss. 1898)
Terral

State v. Prude

Opinion of the Court

Terral, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellee was indicted for that she “did feloniously kill and sky an unborn quick child of said Emma Prude,” etc. The defendant demurred to the indictment. The court sustained the demurrer and the state appeals.

This is not a good indictment at common law, for by the common law, “An infant in the mother’s womb, not being in rerum natura, is not considered as a person who can be killed within the description of murder, and, therefore, if a woman, being quick or great with child, take any potion to cause an abortion, or if another give her any such potion, or if a person strike her, whereby the child within her is killed, it is not *545murder or manslaughter. ’ ’ 3 Russell on Crimes (International ed.), 6; Wharton on Horn. (2d ed.), sec. 303; Wharton’s Am. Grim. Law (6th ed.), sec. 942; McClain on Crim. Law, sec. 294; Abams v. Foshee, 66 Am. Dec., 91, note.

The indictment, obviously, is not drawn under § 1157, code 1892, because the administration of some medicine, drug or substance, or the use of some instrument, with intent to destroy the unborn quick child, is not alleged therein, and because the taking of any substance or the use of any instrument by the pregnant woman herself with intent to destroy the child in her womb is not covered by said section. Bishop on Stat. Cr. (2d ed.), secs. 747, 749.

Affirmed.

Reference

Full Case Name
State of Mississippi v. Emma Prude
Cited By
4 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
Criminal Law. Murder. Manslaughter. Infant in mother's womb. Common law. Code 1892, \\ 1157. At common law an infant in the mother's womh is not a person who can be killed within the meaning- of the criminal law, and the taking of any substance or the use of any instrument by the pregnant woman herself is not within code 1892, $ 1157, making it manslaughter to administer medicine to or to use instruments upon a woman pregnant with a quick child, with intent to and actually killing- such child.