State v. Elder

65 Ind. 282
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1879
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 65 Ind. 282 (State v. Elder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana 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. Elder, 65 Ind. 282 (Ind. 1879).

Opinion

Biddle, J.

The appellee was indicted for an attempt to produce a miscarriage on the body of Elizabeth Bradburn. The indictment contains three counts.

The first count charges, that “ One Anthony Elder, on the 8th day of June, 1876, at said county and State aforesaid, unlawfully and wilfully employed a certain instrument, known'as a uterine sound, in and upon the person of one Elizabeth Bradburn, who was then and there a [283]*283pregnant woman, by then and there inserting said instrument into the uterus of said Elizabeth Bradburn, and then and there and thereby attempting to rupture the placenta, with the intent then and there and thereby to produce the miscarriage of said Elizabeth Bradburn, the procuring of said miscarriage not being then and there necessary to preserve the life of the said Elizabeth Bradburn.”

The second count of the indictment is the same as the first, except that it charges the appellant with having done the acts “ by the hand of one Jane Abbott.”

The third count in the indictment charges, that the appellant, on, etc., at, etc., “ did then and there unlawfully and wilfully administer to one Elizabeth Bradburn, who was then and there a pregnant woman, a large quantity of medicine, with intent then and there and thereby unlawfully to produce the miscarriage of the said Elizabeth Bradburn, the procuring of said miscarriage not being then and there necessary to preserve the life of the said Elizabeth Bradburn, contrary,” etc.

The appellant pleaded to the indictment by a special answer of former acquittal. The answer is so redundant in its averments, and thereby made so long, that it is quite impracticable to set it out in this opinion ; nor need we do so, as the only objection taken to it is, that the offence set up therein, of which it is alleged the appellant was acquitted, was not the same offence as that charged against him in the present indictment. The charge against the appellant, in the first count of the indictment in the former case, which is set out in the answer, was for murder in the first degree, averred in the following words :

“ That the said Anthony Elder, on,” etc., “ at,” etc., “ did then and there unlawfully and feloniously, purposely and with premeditated malice, kill and murder a certain child, unnamed, of one Elizabeth Bradburn, by then and there unlawfully and feloniously and purposely employing a [284]*284certain instrument, to the grand jurors unknown, upon the body of the said Elizabeth Bradburn, who was then and there pregnant with said child, by then and there inserting said instrument into the uterus of the said Elizabeth Brad-burn, and passing it about the foetus, thereby causing the miscarriage of the said Elizabeth Bradburn, and the death of said child.”

The second count of the former indictment is the same as the first, except that the charge of murder is made in the second degree instead of the first.

The court, upon demurrer, held this answer sufficient. From this ruling the State appealed.

That no person shall be put in jeopardy twice for the same offence is a common-law principle, which, we believe, is incorporated into the constitution of each of the States which compose the United States. This provision, however, has not been interpreted and applied uniformly throughout all the States. In some it has been held to mean no more than the common-law principle. In others, it has been held that the offender can be prosecuted to final judgment but once upon the same state of facts, although they may be susceptible of a division into several offences ; that when the State has prosecuted the accused to final judgment on any one of such offences, the judgment shall be a bar to any other prosecution on the same state of facts. The English rule is, that, when the facts necessary to convict upon the second prosecution would necessarily have convicted on the first, a final judgment on the first prosecution will he a bar to the second ; but, if the facts which will convict on the second prosecution would not necessarily have convicted on the first, then the first will not be a bar to the second, although the offences charged may have been committed by the same state of facts ; and we believe this rule is valid in all the States of the Union. While in some a more liberal rule is held in favor of the accused, which allows [285]*285but one final judgment on the same state of facts, although they may include several offences.

We believe the true rules, deducible from both principle and authority, to he,

1. When the facts constitute but one offence, though it. may be susceptible of division into parts, as in larceny for stealing several articles of property at the same time, belonging to the same person, a prosecution to final judgment for stealing a part of the articles will be a bar to a subsequent prosecution for stealing any other part of the articles, stolen hy the same act.
2. When the facts constitute two or more offences, wherein the lesser offence is necessarily involved in the greater — as an assault is involved in an assault and battery, as an assault and battery is involved in an assault and battery with intent to commit a felony, and as a larceny is involved in a robbery — and when the facts necessary to convict on a second prosecution would necessarily have convicted on the first, then the first prosecution to a final judgment will be a bar to the second.
3. But when the same facts constitute two or more of-fences, wherein the lesser offence is not necessarily involved in the greater, and when the facts necessary to convict on a second prosecution would not necessarily have convicted on the first, then the first prosecution will not he a bar to the second, although the offences were both committed at the same time and by the same act.

The following text-books and decisions will support the above rules : 1 Whart. Crim. Law, secs. 565, 566; 1 Bishop Crim. Law, sec. 1,057 ; Bruce v. The State, 9 Ind. 206; Trittipo v. The State, 18 Ind. 360 ; Jackson v. The State, 14 Ind. 327; Wininger v. The State, 13 Ind. 540; Hickey v. The State, 23 Ind. 21; Hamilton v. The State, 36 Ind. 280; Fritz v. The State, 40 Ind. 18; Clem v. The State, 42 Ind. 420; Brinkman v. The State, 57 Ind. 76; The State [286]*286v. George, 53 Ind. 434 ; Wilkinson v. The State, 59 Ind. 416 ; The Commonwealth v. Kinney, 2 Virginia Cases, 139; The King v. Emden, 9 East, 437 ; Commonwealth v. Squire, 1 Met. 258 ; The State v. Lewis, 2 Hawks, 98 ; Price v. The State, 19 Ohio, 423; State v. Stanly, 4 Jones, N. C. 290; State v. Birmingham,Bushee, 120 ; The State v. Cooper, 1 Green, N.J. 361; The People v. Van Keurin, 5 Parker C. C. 66; Roberts v. The State, 14 Ga. 8; The State v. Keogh, 13 La. An. 243; The State v. Townsend, 2 Harring. Del. 543; Commonwealth v. Cunningham, 13 Mass. 245 ; The State v. Benham, 7 Conn. 414; Holt v. The State, 38 Ga. 187; Commonwealth v. Tenney, 97 Mass. 50; Hite v. The State, 9 Yerg. 357 ; The State v. Reed, 12 Md. 263 ; Wilson v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Daniels
165 Wash. 2d 627 (Washington Supreme Court, 2009)
Richardson v. State
717 N.E.2d 32 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1999)
Russell v. State
711 N.E.2d 545 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1999)
Moritz v. State
465 N.E.2d 748 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1984)
Isaac v. State
439 N.E.2d 1193 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1982)
Elmore v. State
382 N.E.2d 893 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1978)
Wayne County Prosecutor v. Recorder's Court Judge
272 N.W.2d 587 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1978)
Elmore v. State
375 N.E.2d 660 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1978)
Diggs v. State
364 N.E.2d 1176 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1977)
Coleman v. State
339 N.E.2d 51 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1975)
Johnson v. State
313 N.E.2d 535 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1974)
People v. White
212 N.W.2d 222 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1973)
Ashe v. Swenson
397 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1970)
Hutchinson v. State
225 N.E.2d 828 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1967)
Woods v. State
130 N.E.2d 139 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1955)
Steffler v. State
104 N.E.2d 729 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1952)
Ford v. State
98 N.E.2d 655 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1951)
Carter v. State
96 N.E.2d 273 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1951)
Smith
45 A.2d 438 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1946)
Harris v. State
193 Ga. 109 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1941)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
65 Ind. 282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-elder-ind-1879.