Boyd v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 25 January 1883
• Citation: 77 Va. 52
• Parties: BOYD v. THE COMMONWEALTH.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

77 Va. 52

BOYD v. THE COMMONWEALTH.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

January 25, 1883

Error to the decision of the circuit judge of Pittsylvania county refusing to grant a writ of error and supersedeas to the judgment of the county court of said county, rendered 20th August, 1881, whereby William B. Boyd was sentenced to pay a fine of $246, and to be confined in jail for one month upon an indictment for unlawful conduct as a judge of the election held at Shockoe precinct in said county on 2d November, 1880. Opinion states the facts so far as necessary to understand the points decided.

J D. Coles and W. W. Henry for the appellant.

F S. Blair, attorney-general, for the commonwealth.

OPINION

LEWIS, P.

The plaintiff in error was indicted in the county court of Pittsylvania county, for corrupt conduct as a judge of election, at Shockoe voting place, in said county, at a general election there held on the second day of November, 1880. The prosecution is founded on section forty-three, chapter eight, of the Code of 1873, which provides, that " if any officer, messenger, or other person on whom any duty is enjoined by law relative to general or special elections, shall be guilty of any wilful neglect of such duty, or of any corrupt conduct in the execution of the same, he shall, upon conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor," and shall be punished by fine and imprisonment, as therein prescribed. Section twelve of the same chapter provides, that at all elections held under that act, the polls shall be opened at sunrise on election day. And by section eight it is provided, that in the event of the failure of any judge or judges of election to attend at the polls for one hour after the time prescribed for opening them, the judge or judges in attendance may select one or more qualified persons to serve in the place of such absent judge or judges.

The indictment charges that the plaintiff in error being one of the judges of election at the said voting place, on the said second day of November, 1880, " at the general election aforesaid, duly selected and appointed as aforesaid, and in the execution of his said office * * * * then and there with threats, opprobrious language and menaces, did unlawfully, corruptly, and wilfully prevent Edward B. Moon and James B. Fitzgerald from qualifying and acting as judges of said election, at said voting place, and from entering upon the performance of the duties imposed upon them by law touching the holding, conducting and certifying the same." It avers that the said Edward B. Moon and James B. Fitzgerald, together with the plaintiff in error, had been appointed judges of election for the said voting place, by the county court of the said county at its preceding April term, and that the acts complained of were done within the space of one hour after sunrise on the said second day of November. It then further charges as follows: " That he, the said William B. Boyd," [the plaintiff in error] * * * then and there, " and while in the discharge of the functions of his said office, did unlawfully, wilfully and corruptly select and appoint two other male citizens of said district, to-wit, Willis H. Shields and Larkin D. Atkinson, to act as judges of said election, in the place of the said Edward B. Moon and James B. Fitzgerald, he, the said William B. Boyd, well knowing, and at the time of said selection and appointment of said Shields and Atkinson as judges as aforesaid, that the said Edward B. Moon and James B. Fitzgerald were then and there desirous to qualify and act as judges at said election in conjunction with [him] the said Boyd, and were then and there endeavoring to qualify and act as judges at said election and to enter upon the performance of the duties imposed upon them by law as such judges."

These are all the...