State v. Gassard

• Decision Date: 01 December 1903
• Citation: 77 S.W. 473,103 Mo. App. 143
• Parties: STATE v. GASSARD et al.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

77 S.W. 473

103 Mo. App. 143

STATE v. GASSARD et al.

Court of Appeals at St. Louis, Missouri.

December 1, 1903.

CRIMINAL LAW—FAILURE TO COUNT BALLOTS —INDICTMENT—SUFFICIENCY.

1. In all prosecutions for felonies everything constituting the offense must be pleaded with certainty and clearness, and nothing must be left to be implied.

2. An indictment of election judges, charging neglect of duty in failing to properly count ballots for and against constitutional amendments, which does not aver that the failure was in itself willful, or how committed, or whether the count was falsified for or against the amendments, or whether the count was exaggerated or reduced from the correct returns of the ballots cast at the election, is fatally defective.

Appeal from St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction; L. A. Steber, Special Judge.

Indictment charging Samuel Gassard and others with crime. Quashed, and the state appeals. Affirmed.

C. P. Williams, for the State. J. A. Gerenz and Harry A. Walsh, for respondents.

REYBURN, J.

The state has appealed from the judgment of the St. Louis court of criminal correction sustaining a demurrer and motion to quash, assigning as reasons that there was a misjoinder of parties, as the offense charged was of such a character that two parties could not be charged jointly as guilty thereof; that the indictment was indefinite, vague, and uncertain, and failed to sufficiently inform defendants of the offense with which they were charged; the indictment being in the following language:

"The Grand Jurors of the State of Missouri, within and for the body of the city of St. Louis, now here in court, duly impaneled, sworn and charged, upon their oath present: that on the 4th day of November, one thousand nine hundred and two, at the city of St. Louis aforesaid, the same being the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of said year, at the city of St. Louis aforesaid, and in each ward and election precinct of the said city, a general election was held pursuant to the constitution and laws of the state of Missouri, and that at said election there was submitted to the people of the city of St. Louis for their choice and election, certain proposed amendments to the constitution of said state, and that at said city of St. Louis and on said day, Samuel Gassard, John J. Shea and W. W. Wilkinson were the duly appointed and qualified judges of election for said election in the second precinct of the 22d ward of said city, and that it...