Bowen v. State

• Decision Date: 05 November 1898
• Parties: BOWEN v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

24 So. 551

119 Ala. 7

BOWEN v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

November 5, 1898

Appeal from circuit court, Wilcox county; John Moore, Judge.

Peter Bowen was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Reversed.

The defendant made a motion to quash the indictment upon the following grounds: (1) Because the grand jurors by whom said indictment was found were not drawn in the presence of the officers designated by law. (2) Because said jury box contained no legal names at the time the grand jury which returned said indictment should have been drawn. (3) Because the jury box of said county, in November, 1895, contained no legal names; that the names therein were illegally placed therein. (4) Because one J. W. Middlebrooks acted as a grand juror at the time the said indictment was found, and participated in the proceedings of said grand jury in finding the indictment, and that said J. W. Middlebrooks was not drawn as a grand juror by the officers whose duty is was to select grand jurors for said term of the court, nor was he placed on said grand jury to supply a deficiency in the number of said grand jury. The solicitor moved the court to strike the defendant's motion to quash the indictment from the file. This motion was granted, and to this ruling of the court in striking said motion from the file the defendant excepted. Thereupon the defendant filed a plea in abatement assigning therefor the following grounds: "(1) Because the grand jurors who returned said indictment in said case were not drawn in the presence of the officers designated by law. (2) Because the grand jurors who found said indictment in said case were not drawn from the jury box of said county as required by law; and, further, that they were not drawn at all. (3) Because the grand jurors who found said indictment in said case were not drawn as required by law. (4) Because the grand jurors who found said indictment in said case were not first drawn by the jury commissioners of said county from the jury box, as required by law. (5) Because there were no legal names in said jury box at the time the law required this grand jury to be drawn therefrom." The state, by its solicitor, joined issue on the first ground, as set forth in the plea of abatement, and demurred to the other grounds thereof. This demurrer was sustained. Upon trying the issue as joined upon the first ground of the plea in abatement, the court, after hearing the evidence, gave the general affirmative charge in favor of the state, and to this ruling the defendant duly excepted. Thereupon the defendant moved to quash the venire, upon the ground that there were persons on the venire...