Rodriquez v. Territory of Arizona

125 P. 878, 14 Ariz. 166, 1912 Ariz. LEXIS 127
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 1912
DocketCriminal No. 308
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 125 P. 878 (Rodriquez v. Territory of Arizona) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rodriquez v. Territory of Arizona, 125 P. 878, 14 Ariz. 166, 1912 Ariz. LEXIS 127 (Ark. 1912).

Opinion

CUNNINGHAM, J.

The appellant contends that the indictment is not sufficient to support a verdict and judgment of murder in the first degree, and alleges that it does not charge a willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a human being with malice aforethought. If this objection is well founded, the conviction was wrong, and the judgment of the court must be reversed.

It is said by the supreme court in the ease of United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 558, 23 L. Ed. 593: “The object of the indictment is, first, to furnish the accused with such a description of the charge against him as will enable him to make his defense and avail himself of his conviction or acquittal for protection against a further prosecution for the same cause; and, second, to inform the court of the facts alleged, so that it may decide whether they are sufficient in law to support a conviction, if one should be had. For this, facts are to be stated, not conclusions of law alone. A crime is made up from facts and intent, and these must be set forth in the indictment with reasonable particularity of time, place and circumstances.”

Under the statutes of Arizona, the indictment must contain the title of the court and a statement of the facts constituting the offense in ordinary and concise language, and in such manner as to enable a person of- common understanding to know what is intended. Sec. 824, Pen. Code Ariz. 1901.

The indictment must be direct and certain as regards the party charged, the offense charged, the particular circumstances of the offense charged, when they are necessary to constitute a complete offense. See. 826, Pen. Code Ariz. 1901.

[170]*170The indictment is sufficient if it can be understood therefrom that it is entitled in a court having authority to receive it; that it was found by a grand jury of the county in which the court was held; that the defendant is named; that the offense was committed at some place within the jurisdiction of the court; that the offense was committed at some time prior to the finding of the indictment; that the act or omission charged as the offense is clearly and distinctly set forth in ordinary and concise language, and in such manner as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended; that the act or omission charged as the offense is stated with such degree of certainty as to enable the court to pronounce judgment upon a conviction, according to the right of the case. Sec. 833, Pen. Code Ariz. 1901.

No indictment is insufficient, nor can the trial, judgment, or other proceeding therein be attacked, by reason of any defect or imperfection in matter of form which does not intencj to prejudice a substantial right of the defendant upon its merits. Sec. 834, Pen. Code Ariz. 1901.

Murder, as defined by our law, is “the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Such malice is expressed or implied. It is expressed when there is manifested a deliberate intention unlawfully to take away the life of a fellow creature. It is implied where no considerable provocation appears or where the circumstances attending the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart.” See. 172, Pen. Code Ariz. 1901.

All murder which is perpetrated by means of poison, or lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or which is committed in the perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate arson, rape, robbery, burglary, or mayhem, is murder of the first degree, and all other kinds of murder are of the second degree. See. 173, Pen. Code Ariz. 1901.

In order that the conviction may stand in this case, the indictment must charge that the killing was unlawful and with malice aforethought, and that such killing was willful, deliberate, and premeditated. It is contended by appellant that this indictment charges a willful, unlawful and felonious assault with deliberate and premeditated malice, and that the charge is not equivalent to an averment of willful, unlawful [171]*171and premeditated) killing; for the latter necessarily implies the existence of the intent with the means of inflicting death, which intent may be lacking in assault, and is not averred, and cites authorities that seem to sustain this view.

In the case of Fitzpatrick v. United States, 178 U. S. 804, 44 L. Ed. 1078, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 944, the supreme court deals with an indictment very smilar in form to the one returned against this appellant; the indictment in that case, omitting the immaterial parts, reading as follows: “Did unlawfully,’ willfully, knowingly, feloniously, purposely, and of deliberate and premeditated malice make an assault upon one Samuel Roberts and that they ... a certain revolver then and there charged with gunpowder and leaden bullets, . . . then and there feloniously, purposely, and of deliberate and premeditated) malice did discharge and shoot off to, against, and upon the said Samuel Roberts; . . . with one of the bullets aforesaid, out of the revolver, aforesaid . . . discharged and shot off as aforesaid then and there feloniously, purposely and with deliberate and premeditated malice did strike, penetrate, and wound him, the said Samuel Roberts, in and upon the right breast . . . one mortal wound, of which said mortal wound he, the said Samuel Roberts, instantly died,” and further “did then and there kill and murder the said Samuel Roberts in the manner and form aforesaid.”

The supreme court comments upon this indictment as follows: “Defendant criticises this indictment as failing to aver deliberate and premeditated malice in killing Roberts, although it is averred that the defendants did, with deliberate and premeditated malice, inflict a mortal wound, of which he instantly died, and that they killed and murdered him in the manner and form aforesaid. If, as alleged in the indictment, they, with deliberate and premeditated malice, shot Roberts in the breast with a revolver, and inflicted a mortal wound, of which he instantly died, they would be presumed to contemplate and intend the natural and probable consequences of such act; and an additional averment that they, with deliberate and premeditated malice intended to kill him, was quite unnecessary to apprise the common understanding of their purpose. If they purposely inflicted a mortal wound, they must have intended to kill. No person could have a moment’s hestitation as to what it was intended [172]*172to aver, viz., that the defendants had been guilty of a deliberate and premeditated murder; and while a number of eases are cited which lend some support to the argument of the defendant, there was no such statute involved as section 1268 of the Oregon Code. We have no doubt the indictment furnished the accused with such a description of the charge as would enable him to avail himself of a plea of former jeopardy, and also to inform the court whether the facts were sufficient in law to support a conviction, within the ruling in the Cruibshank ease. While we should hold an indictment to be insufficient that did not charge in definite language all the elements constituting the offense, we have no desire to be hypercritical or to require the pleader to unduly repeat as to every incident of the offense the allegation of deliberateness and premeditation. We are bound to give some effect to the provisions of section 1268 in its evident purpose -to authorize a relaxation of the extreme- stringency of criminal pleadings, -and make that sufficient in law which satisfies the ‘common understanding of men. ’ ’ ’

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Bluebook (online)
125 P. 878, 14 Ariz. 166, 1912 Ariz. LEXIS 127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rodriquez-v-territory-of-arizona-ariz-1912.