State v. Baller

26 W. Va. 90, 1885 W. Va. LEXIS 49
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedJune 27, 1885
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 26 W. Va. 90 (State v. Baller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Baller, 26 W. Va. 90, 1885 W. Va. LEXIS 49 (W. Va. 1885).

Opinion

Green, Judge:

The only question involved in this case is : Was the indictment in this case good ? The only defect claimed by the counsel for the plaintiff in error is, that it charges that the defendant below did unlawfully furnish to Ran for the use of Earl $3.00 to unlawfully induce Earl to absent himself from the circuit court of said county at the February term, 1883, as a witness on behalf of the State in the trial of an indictment against the defendant below, whereby she the defendant below attempted to obstruct the administration of justice. It is claimed by the counsel for the plaintiff in error, that the facts alleged in this indictment are insufficient to show, that the defendant below did attempt to obstruct the administration of justice, as the giving by her of money to a third party to be given by him to a witness to prevent his attendance as a witness on the trial of a case does not amount legally to an attempt to obstruct the administration of justice, unless this third party gave or tendered this money to the witness or in some other way attempted to induce this witness to absent himself as a witness in that case; and that the indictment was therefore fatally defective, because there was no allegation that any inducement was presented to the witness to absent himself as a witness on the trial of this case. The question to be decided is : Was such an allegation necessary to complete the offence charged in the indictment, an attempt to obstruct and impede the administration of justice ?

In the case of Cunningham v. The State, 44 Miss. 701 the court say: “The doctrine of attempt to commit a substantive crime is one of the most important and at the same time most intricate titles of the criminal law. There is ■ no title, indeed, less understood by the courts, or more obscure in the text-books than that of attempts. There must be an attempt to commit a crime, and an act towards its consummation. So long as the act rests in bare intention, it is not punishable ; but immediately when an act is done, the law judges not only the act done but of the intent, with which it was done; and if accompanied with an unlawful and malicious intent, though the act itself would otherwise have been innocent, the intent being criminal and punishable.”

An attempt to obstruct or impede the administration fo [94]*94justice by inducing a witness to absent himself from court is unquestionably a misdemeanor. It was a misdemeanor at common law. (Hawkins’ Pleas of the Crown Book 1 chap. 21 sec. 15 p. 90; Commonwealth v. Reynolds, 14 Gray 89; State v. Keys, 8 Vt. 57; State v. Carpenter, 20 Vt. 9.) And it was declared a misdemeanor by the Code of W. Va. chap. 147 sec. 30 p. 691. This provision in our Code was amended on March 23, 1882, sec. 1, ch. 134; and by this amendment the punishment of either obstructing or impeding the administration of justice in any court or the attempt so to do was fixed at a fine of not less than $25.00 nor more than $200.00 and imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months.

As before said, it is obvious, that an indictable attempt to-commit this or any other crime must consist of something-more than a mere intention to commit the crime. The very word used in the above statute, which declares an attempt to obstruct the administration of justice a misdemeanor, implies, that this misdemeanor can be committed only by some act intended to result in the crime. An indictable attempt is therefore such an intentional preparatory act as will apparently result, if not extrinsically hindered, in a crime, which' it was designed to eftect. This is the definition given by ’Wharton in his Commercial Law (eighth edition) chapter eight, section one hundred and seventy-three. ■ The great difficulty is to determine, what must be the nature of these preliminary acts and the nature of their connection with the intended crime, so as to make them an indictable attempt to commit such crime. These preliminary acts, if connected with the intended crime only as a condition as distinguished from a cause, can never according to the better authorities constitute an indictable attempt to commit such crime. While it is often not difficult to distinguish a condition from a cause, yet they frequently approximate so closely, that it becomes exceedingly difficult to distinguish them. By cause is meant that condition which determines the final result. As illustrating the difference between a cause and a condition I will put the case of the death of a child proceeding from suffocation produced by forcing moss into the child’s throat. This would still be considered the cause, as the swelling arose [95]*95from the forcing of the moss into the child’s throat, though the immediate occasion of the child’s death was the swelling up of the passages of the throat causing suffocation. In this case the swelling of the throat, which occasioned the suffocation, was the condition of the death, while the causé of it was the forcing of the moss into the throat. This illustration is found in Wharton’s Criminal Law (8th Ed.) Book 1, sec. 154, p. 184. In the same section is the following illustration : “ Iron is dug from a mine, is melted in a furnace, is shapen in a factory, is sold as a weapon by a tradesman, is used to inflict a fatal wound by an assassin. Now the mining, the melting, the shaping, the selling are all conditions of the murder, without which it could not in the line, in which it was effected, have taken place; but none of these acts is a cause of the murder, unless the particular act was done in concert with the murderer, to aid him in effecting his purpose.”

Perhaps we can not get a clearer conception of the nature of these preliminary acts and of the character of their connection with the intended crime, which made them an indictable attempt to commit such crime, than by referring to some eases, which have either actually arisen, or which have been stated as illustrations by eminent judges in deciding cases. I do not say, that from these cases any rule can be drawn, which would lead us to certain results in many cases, which might arise ; nor do I say, that these cases are all of them reconcilable in principle. Still they will aid us in making correct conclusions in this case; and they will illustrate the inherent difficulty and the great obscurity, which arises, when we undertake to determine, whether certain acts are or are not indictable attempts to commit a crime. An indictment lies for attempting to pursuade a witness not to appear and give evidence. (Rex v. Lanley, 2 Strange 904; State v. Keyes, 8 Vt. 57; State v. Carpenter, 20 Vt. 9). An indictment lies, where a party sends a letter to another offering to bribe a minister of state, or where one sends a letter denouncing another with the expressed intention of provoking him to send a challenge to fight. In either case the sending of such letter was a step towards the misdemeanor intended to be accomplished, the corrept abuse of a minister of his official position or the sending of a challenge. The [96]*96sending of such letter is an indictable attempt to cause the commission of such misdemeanor. (King v. Philips, 6 East 464.) It is an indictable offence to solicit a servant to steal his master’s goods, though they were not stolen nor any act done except the soliciting. Such soliciting is an indictable attempt to cause larceny tobe committed. (King v. Higgins,

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Bluebook (online)
26 W. Va. 90, 1885 W. Va. LEXIS 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-baller-wva-1885.