Fields v. State
Fields v. State
Opinion of the Court
The indictment in this case was filed in court on the 8th of August, 1873, for an offense alleged to have been committed on the 25th day of December, 1872, while the offense for which appellant was convicted, as appears from th^ statement of facts, was committed on the 25th of December, 1873, after the bill of indictment was filed.
In the absence of anything in the statement of facts, either preceding or following the alleged date of the offense referred to by the witnesses upon whose evidence the case was submitted to the jury, tending to show that the date mentioned in the statement of facts results from a clerical mistake in its preparation, or what the true date of the transaction was to which the witnesses referred, we are not willing on bare impressions of this kind to hold, in direct and palpable contradiction of its approval by the judge presiding on the trial of the case in the District Court, that the statement of facts in the record is not correct, and by intendment supply its defects, so as to support the judgment. Even though the evidence submitted to the jury may, beyond all question, have been amply sufficient to support the verdict, it is better that the judgment should be reversed than to establish such a precedent or encourage carelessness in the preparation of so important a part of the record of a case to be brought to this court as the statement of facts.
Because the verdict is not warranted by this evidence, the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- James Fields v. State
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Mistake of date in statement of facts.—However obvious it may appear that the date of the offense, as given in the statement of facts, was a clerical error, the court will reverse where the offense appears by the statement of facts to have been committed subsequent to the date of the indictment.