State v. Topham

123 P. 888, 41 Utah 39, 1912 Utah LEXIS 38
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedMay 4, 1912
DocketNo. 2340
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 123 P. 888 (State v. Topham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah 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. Topham, 123 P. 888, 41 Utah 39, 1912 Utah LEXIS 38 (Utah 1912).

Opinion

STRAUP, J.

The defendant was convicted of the crime of pandering, and was sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison for a term of eighteen years. She appeals.

The portion of the statute (Sess. Laws 1911, chap. 108) under which she was charged and convicted reads: “Any person who shall, by promises, threats, violence, or by any device or scheme, cause, induce, persuade, encourage, inveigle, or entice an inmate of a house of prostitution or place of assignation to remain therein as such inmate,” is guilty of the crime of pandering and punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not more than twenty years. The information charged that the defendant on, etc., at, etc., “did then and there willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously, by promises and threats, and by divers devices and schemes, cause, induce, persuade and encourage” a particularly named female, “being then and there an inmate of a certain house of prostitution, to remain therein as such inmate; such house of prostitution being then and there known as No. 140 in what is commonly known as the stockade in Salt Lake City.’'’ To this information the defendant, before plea, interposed a general and a special demurrer alleging that the information did not state facts sufficient to constitute an offense, and especially did not sufficiently set forth the nature and cause of the accusation, nor the acts constituting the offense, nor [42]*42tbe particular circumstances of tbe offense necessary to constitute a complete offense. Tbe demurrers were overruled. After verdict, and before sentence1, tbe defendant on tbe same grounds also made a motion in ari’est of judgment, wbicb motion was also denied. These rulings and those relating to insufficiency of evidence to support tbe verdict are complained of.

1 Tbe doctrine is fundamental, and, as stated by tbe Supreme Court of tbe United States in Rosen v. United States, 161 U. S. 29, 16 Sup. Ct. 434, 40 L. Ed. 606, that “tbe constitutional right of a. defendant to be informed of tbe nature and cause of tbe accusation against him en titles him to insist, at the outset, by demurrer or by motion to quash, and after verdict, by motion in arrest of judgment, that tbe indictment shall apprise him of tbe crime charged with such reasonable certainty that be can •make bis defense and protect himself after judgment against another prosecution for the same offense;” and by Mr. Justice Sanborn in Floren v. United States, 186 Fed. 961, 108 C. C. A. 577, that:

“On a motion in arrest of judgment, as well as on a demurrer, it is essential to the validity of an indictment that it contain aver-ments of the facts which constitute the offense it charges so certain and specific that upon conviction or acquittal thereon it, and the judgment upon it, will constitute a complete defense to a second prosecution of the defendant for the same offense.”

Many cases in support of this doctrine are there cited.

2 It is also elementary and, as stated by tbe Michigan court in People v. Marion, 28 Mich. 257, approved and quoted by this court in State v. McKenna, 24 Utah, 317, 67 Pac. 815, that, “as every man is presumed to be innocent until proved to be guilty, be must be presumed also to be ignorant of what is intended to be proved against him, except as be is informed by the indictment or information.” These doctrines are not here disputed. Our statute is in harmony with them. Comp: Laws 1907, section 4730, provides that “tbe information or indictment must contain [43]*43. . . a statement of tbe acts 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;” and by section 4732 that “the information or indictment must be direct and certain as it regards . . . the offense charged,” and “the particular circumstances, when they are necessary to constitute a complete offense.” Here, then, we have a statute which in all cases requires the information to contain “a statement of the acts constituting the offense,” and to be “direct and certain as it regards tbe offense charged, and the particular circumstances of the offense, when they are necessary to constitute a complete offense.”

3 Does the information meet these requirements? If it does, it is good; if not, it is bad and will not support the judgment. The material parts of the information in this respect are that the defendant did “by promises and1 threats, and by divers devices and schemes, cause, induce, persuade, and encourage” an inmate of a house of prostitution to remain therein as siich inmate. The offense is charged in the mere language of the statute. That, the state urges, is sufficient. But that is no-t what the statute declares.

4 Of course there are cases where an indictment or information in the language of the statute is good. But there are many where that is not true. Says Mr. Bishop in 1 New Criminal Procedure, section 624: “The indictment must fully state the offense; and, if the statutory words do not suffice for this, it must be expanded beyond them.” Said the Supreme Oourt of the United States in United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 23 L. Ed. 588:

“It is an elementary principle of criminal pleading that where the definition of an offense, whether it he at common law or by statute, includes generic terms, it is not sufficient that the indictment shall charge the offense in the same generic terms as in the definition, hut it must state the species — it must descend to particulars.”

[44]*44Tbe same thought is expressed by Mr. Justice Frick in the case of State v. Swan, 31 Utah, 336, 88 Pac. 12, that,

“Where an act denounced by tbe statute is couched in generic terms, the information must go further in stating the offense than by merely using the language of the statute,” and that an information in such language is not sufficient “in those cases where the acts constituting the offense are nearly as varied as the number of cases in which the charge is made.”

In order that an information merely in the words of the statute' may be sufficient, the words of the statute themselves “must fully, directly, and expressly, without any uncertainty or ambiguity, set forth all the elements necessary to constitute the offense intended to be punished, and must state all the material facts and circumstances embraced in the definition of the offense.” (22 Cyc. 340; Evans v. United States, 153 U. S. 587, 14 Sup. Ct. 934, 38 L. Ed. 830; United States v. Carll, 105 U. S. 611, 26 L. Ed. 1135.)

The Supreme Court of California well, expressed the rule in People v. Perales, 141 Cal. 581, 75 Pac. 170, in the following language:

“While it is the general rule that it is sufficient to charge an offense in the language of the statute, yet this rule is subject to the qualification that, where a more particular statement of facts is necessary in order to charge the offense definitely and certainly, it must be made.

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

Related

Tillman v. State
2012 UT App 289 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2012)
City of Texarkana v. Cities of New Boston
141 S.W.3d 778 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004)
in Re: Randy E. Williams
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003
State v. Bell
770 P.2d 100 (Utah Supreme Court, 1988)
LaMar v. State
109 N.E.2d 614 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1953)
State v. Gates
221 P.2d 878 (Utah Supreme Court, 1950)
State Ex Rel. Treat v. District Court, Fourth Judicial Dist.
200 P.2d 248 (Montana Supreme Court, 1948)
State v. Groseclose
171 P.2d 863 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1946)
State v. Erwin
120 P.2d 285 (Utah Supreme Court, 1941)
State v. Mason
78 P.2d 920 (Utah Supreme Court, 1938)
Atwood v. Cox, District Judge
55 P.2d 377 (Utah Supreme Court, 1936)
State v. Pritchett
34 P.2d 704 (Utah Supreme Court, 1934)
State v. Woolman
33 P.2d 640 (Utah Supreme Court, 1934)
State v. Fisher
8 P.2d 589 (Utah Supreme Court, 1932)
State v. Durfee
290 P. 962 (Utah Supreme Court, 1930)
State v. Lund
286 P. 960 (Utah Supreme Court, 1930)
Plutus Min. Co. v. Orme, County Com'rs.
289 P. 132 (Utah Supreme Court, 1930)
Davis, Warden v. Walton
276 P. 921 (Utah Supreme Court, 1929)
Kramer v. Pixton, State Bank Examiner
268 P. 1029 (Utah Supreme Court, 1928)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
123 P. 888, 41 Utah 39, 1912 Utah LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-topham-utah-1912.