Holt v. State

107 Ohio St. (N.S.) 307
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 27, 1923
DocketNo. 17722
StatusPublished

This text of 107 Ohio St. (N.S.) 307 (Holt v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holt v. State, 107 Ohio St. (N.S.) 307 (Ohio 1923).

Opinion

Day, J.

In this case five grounds of error are urged:

First. That the court erred in overruling the demurrer to the second count of the indictment, for the following reasons:

(a) For failure to charge knowledge of the fact that the deceased was a policeman.

(h) That Section 12402-1, General Code, is unconstitutional, as inflicting “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution of Ohio, and that said section is in violation of Article II, Section 26 of the Ohio Constitution, providing:

“All laws, of a general nature, shall have a uniform operation throughout the state.”

(a) As to the failure to aver knowledge, the indictment did aver that the defendant “purposely and willfully killed Frank Hueftlein, a policeman, while he, the said Frank Hueftlein, was in the discharge of his duty.” The indictment followed the language of the statute, and, if the defendant “willfully and purposely killed a policeman while in the discharge of his duty,” he must have done it with knowledge that the person whom he killed was a policeman, for, if he willed to kill one who was a policeman while in the discharge of his duty, and purposely does the act, he does it designedly, and therefore knowingly.

The Century Dictionary defines “purposely” as designedly and knowingly. It is also defined as designedly. Hence we reach the conclusion that to [311]*311kill one who was “a policeman in the discharge of his duty” purposely and willfully is to kill him knowing him to he snch policeman in the discharge of his duty. If “knowingly” and “purposely’ ’ have a common meaning as designedly, the language used in the indictment of “willfully” and “purposely” irrefutably carries with it the element of knowledge.

The great purpose of the indictment is to advise the accused of the nature of the offense with which he is charged, and from the record we are entirely convinced that knowledge that the deceased was a policeman in the discharge of his duty was in the mind of the defendant at the time of the homicide, and that he committed the act, not only willfully and purposely, but also knowingly, and of that fact the indictment surely advised him.

Our attention is called to the cases of Birney v. State, 8 Ohio, 230, and Miller and Gibson v. State, 3 Ohio St., 475. The former was a case involving the harboring and secreting of a slave in violation of the act of 1804. In the opinion of the court in that case, at page 238, it is said:

“This knowledge should have been averred in the indictment, and proved on the trial, for, without such knowledge, the act charged as a crime was innocent in its character. We know of no case where positive action is held criminal, unless the intention accompanies the act, either expressly or necessarily inferred from the act itself. * ’* * It cannot be assumed that ah act which, independent of positive enactment, involves no moral wrong, nay, an act that in many cases would be highly praiseworthy, should be made grievously criminal, when performed in total unconsciousness of the facts that infect it with crime.”

[312]*312The fact that the act would be innocent in itself but for the statute, and the recognition by Judge Wood that in some crimes positive action is criminal when intention accompanies the act either expressly, or necessarily inferred from the act itself, and the further pregnant fact that the act itself would be “highly praiseworthy * * * when performed in total unconsciousness of the facts that infect it with crime,” sufficiently distinguish that case from the case at bar.

In the case of Miller and Gibson v. State, supra, the offense charged was a violation of the fourth section of the act of May 1, 1854 (52 O. L., 153), entitled, “An act to provide against the evils resulting from the sale of intoxicating liquors in the state of Ohio.” The court seems to have given general consideration to the act in question, although the defendants Miller and Gibson appear to have been charged with but the violation of the fourth section. In referring to the second and third sections (page 487) the court says:

“To convict for a violation of the 2d section, it is necessary to aver in the information, and prove on the trial, that the seller knew the buyer to be a minor; and to convict for a violation of the 3d section it is necessary to aver and prove, in like manner, that the seller knew the buyer to be intoxicated, or in the habit of getting intoxicated.”

Section 2 in question reads:

“That it shall be unlawful for any person or persons, by agent or otherwise, to sell intoxicating liquors to minors, unless upon the written order of their parents, guardians, or family physician.”

[313]*313And Section 3 of the act made it unlawful to sell liquor “to persons intoxicated, or who are in the habit of getting intoxicated.” Neither ,of these sections uses the words “willfully” and “purposely,” words that carry the idea of knowledge and design, such as are found in Section 12402-1, General Code. So we cannot regard Miller and Gibson v. State as sufficiently in point to be controlling in the case at bar. It may be noted in passing that the Supreme Court of Illinois refused to follow Miller and Gibson v. State, supra. Again, both of above cases relied upon by plaintiff in error involve offenses that are merely mala prohibita, not malum in se, and, the offenses being of such different character, and being found in statutes employing language so different, and not using the words “willfully,” and “purposely,” as does Section 12402-1, we do not regard either of them as authority sufficient to warrant the sustaining of the demurrer interposed to the second count of the indictment. Of course, upon trial, knowledge that the deceased was an officer, as named in the indictment, must be shown, and in the instant case the record shows that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.

(b) Is Section 12402-1, General Code, in violation of Section 9, Article I of the Constitution, which provides: “Nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted1?” It is conceded that the death penalty inflicted by electrocution is not cruel, but it is claimed that such penalty is unusual when applied to one who has purposely and willfully killed a policeman in the discharge of his duty. We think the Legislature had a right, in the interest of giving greater protection to those who risk their lives [314]*314in protecting society from criminal aggression, to make the killing of such officer while in the discharge of his duty murder in the first degree and to provide the death penalty therefor. An attack upon the duly authorized officers of the government is an attack upon the government itself, and, not. only does clear constitutional authority exist for such classification of murder, but the preservation of government itself justifies it.

The term “unusual,” employed in Section 9, Article I of the Ohio Constitution, means the kind of punishment inflicted, and is not used in the sense urged by plaintiff in error. We are content to follow the language of Wilkerson v. Utah, 99 U. S., 130, 25 L. Ed., 345, as interpreting the meaning of the expression:

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Wilkerson v. Utah
99 U.S. 130 (Supreme Court, 1879)
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Holmes v. State
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Mose v. State
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Jones v. State
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State v. Gaston
65 N.W. 415 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1895)
State v. Weinberg
150 S.W. 1069 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1912)

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Bluebook (online)
107 Ohio St. (N.S.) 307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holt-v-state-ohio-1923.