State v. Rowe

73 N.W. 833, 104 Iowa 323
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJanuary 18, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 73 N.W. 833 (State v. Rowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Rowe, 73 N.W. 833, 104 Iowa 323 (iowa 1898).

Opinion

Granger, J.

[326]*3262 [324]*324I. The indictment charges that Chester W. Rowe, as county treasurer of Poweshiek county, Iowa, embezzled thirty thousand dollars of money belonging to the county, and that the defendant aided and abetted him in so doing. The defendant was not a public officer, and bore no trust relation whatever as to the money charged to have been embezzled. To get directly to the point, it may be said that, had he taken the money without any refence to Chester W. Rowe, he could not have been indicted and convicted of embezzlement. If the charge of embezzlement can be sustained, it is solely on the ground that he aided or abetted Chester W. Rowe to [325]*325commit such a crime. In view of this situation, the question is- presented: Can one who, by himself, could not be a principal in the crime of embezzlement, be an accessory to the crime, in the sense of aiding and abetting its commission? The question leads to a consideration of our statutory provisions. Section 3908 of the Code of 1873 provides that public officers who shall convert to their own use money intrusted to their care and beeping shall be guilty of embezzlement. The following is section 4314: “The distinction between an accessory before the fact and a principal is abrogated and all persons concerned in the commission of a public offense, whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense or aid and abet its commission, though not present, must hereafter be indicted, tried, and punished as principals.” The question is urged: If Richard Rowe could not be principal in the crime of embezzlement if he took the money himself, how can he be if he merely advises the taking of it? The answer is not difficult. It its because the law makes him so. It is just as competent for the legislature to. make one who aids another to commit embezzlement an embezzler as it is to make the principal actor one. It is merely a question of legislative intent. The difficulty of the argument is in bringing into it the thought of accessoryship, and that there is a charge of that character when there is no such purpose. The section quoted abrogates the relationship of accessory before the fact to crimes in this state, and fixes the crimes and punishment for one who aids and abets another in the commission of a public offense. If he aids and abets another to commit a crime, he is guilty of the game crime as the other, and subject to the same punishment. The effect of section 4314 is to enlarge the scope of section 3908, so that other persons than those therein specified'may be guilty of embezzlement by doing the acts specified. Stress is [326]*326placed upon the fact that section 4314 was enacted in 1843, and section 3908 not until 1851; so that, in the enactment of section 4314, reference must have been had to the rule of accessory before the fact; and, as the crime of eim ezzlement was not know to the common law, there could have been no intent to have it apply to embezzlement. A sufficient answer is this1: Both provisions were embraced in the Code of 1851, in the Revision of 1860, and. in the Code of 1873. In each instance the manner of adoption was such as to malte all embraced therein part of one act, so there can be no doubt of their being provisions of the law that should be considered together. Hunt v. Insurance Co., 67 Iowa, 742. In State v. Smith, 100 Iowa, 1, in considering section 4314, we said: “The effect of this provision is to make the offense of one who at common law would have been an accessory before the fact substantive and so far independent that he may be indicted, tried, and punished, and as a principal, without regard to the prosecution of the person who at common law would have been the principal.” The whole matter is concluded in this one proposition; that the statute, in effect, provides that one who aids and abets another to commit embezzlement is himself guilty of embezzlement, and shall be punished accordingly. The authority Of the legislature to so provide is not doubted. But, independent of our statute, appellant’s position is not sound. One may be an accessory by procuring a crime, although such procurer is incompetent to commit the offense in person. State v. Comstock, 46 Iowa, 265; 1 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law. (2d ed.) 260, and cases there cited.

[327]*3273 [326]*326II. Preliminary information was filed before a justice of the peace in July, 1895, charging the offense of embezzlement in the manner we have stated, and [327]*327such information was made the basis of proceedings by which defendant was extradited from the republie of Mexico. The point is made that in the information he was charged as an accessory before the fact, and was brought to Iowa, and tried on an indictment charging him as principal. The mistake is in the facts. He was not charged as accessory in the information, but as counseling and advising the commission of the crime of embezzlement by Ohestr W. Rowe. As to that particular fact, there was no difference between the information and indictment. By the information the defendant was, in express terms, charged with the crime of embezzlement, followed by the averment of facts that constituted the offense. This information was before the authorities of Mexico, and they could judge of its sufficiency under its. treaty with our government. It is true that in U. S. v. Rauscher. 119 U.S. 407 (7 Sup. Ct. Rep.234,) it is held that a treaty to which the United States is a party is a law of the land, of which all courts, federal and state, are to take judicial notice, and by the provisions of which they are to be governed, so far as they are capable of judicial enforcement; and that, under our treaty with Great Britain, where a defendant was extradited on a' charge of murder, the extradition proceedings clothed Mm with an exemption from trial for any other offense until he has had the opportunity to return to the country from which he was taken for the purpose alone of trial for the offenses specified in the demand for his. surrender. In that case the charge on which extradition was obtained Avas murder on the high seas, and the defendant Avas placed on trial under an indictment charging cruel and unusual punishment. The rules we have stated were announced under such facts. In this case the defendant was extradited on a charge of embezzlement, and tried for the same offense, and the case seems1 to be clear authority for the procedure. The rule of the Rauscher Case seems [328]*328to be applicable only to international extradition. Lacelles v. Georgia, 148 U. S. 537, (13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 687); State v. Kealy, 89 Iowa, 94.

4 III. Our treaty with Mexico provides for the surrender of persons “to justice * * * who being accused of the crimes enumerated,” etc. It is urged that the treaty means' charged or accused in an indictment where the crime, is so punishable, and not accused or charged with the offense in an information on which he cannot be tried. That he is to be charged or accused means no more than that he is to be charged or accused in due form of law. Spear, Extradition p. 360. The charge is to be made in the state or country in which the alleged crime is committed, and by “due form- of law” is- meant due form of law in that state or country.

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Bluebook (online)
73 N.W. 833, 104 Iowa 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rowe-iowa-1898.