Brown v. State

• Decision Date: 17 January 1895
• Citation: 105 Ala. 117,16 So. 929
• Parties: BROWN v. STATE (TWO CASES.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

16 So. 929

105 Ala. 117

BROWN v. STATE (TWO CASES.

Supreme Court of Alabama

January 17, 1895

Appeal from city court of Montgomery; Thomas M. Arrington, Judge.

Kiah Brown was convicted of petit larceny, and appeals.Reversed.

The appellant was indicted, tried and convicted upon two separate indictments, charging him with petit larceny.The two cases involve identically the same rulings, and on appeal to this court are submitted together.On August 20, 1894, there was a warrant sworn out before a justice of the peace of Montgomery county, charging the defendant, Brown, with the larceny of several articles at different times.The language of the affidavit upon which this warrant was issued was as follows "That in said county during the past six months, one Kiah Brown did steal cotton seed, cotton, plows, singletrees collars, harness, chairs, lines, doubletrees, etc., from the affiant at various times and places on the premises of the said affiant, against the peace and dignity of the state of Alabama."Upon Kiah Brown being arrested upon the warrant issued under this affidavit, he was carried before the justice of the peace issuing said warrant, who, without taking final jurisdiction of the larceny of any one of the several articles alleged to have been stolen, bound the defendant over to await the action of the grand jury.When the grand jury met it found three several and distinct indictments against the said Kiah Brown, each being for the offense of petit larceny.One of the said indictments charged him with the theft of 400 pounds of cotton in the seed, value of $10, another indictment charged him with the theft of two collars and four singletrees, aggregate value of $2, and still another charged him with the theft of ten bushels of cotton seed, the value of $3.The trials upon these two latter indictments gave rise to the present appeals.The defendant, after the indictments were found, was first put upon his trial in the city court upon the indictment which charged the theft of 400 pounds of seed cotton; and for an answer to the indictment he pleaded the proceedings had in the court of the justice of the peace as the former jeopardy.He was afterwards put separately to his trial upon each of the other indictments, the one charging larceny of the cotton seed, and the other the larceny of the collars and singletrees.As to each of these last two indictments he also interposed his plea of former jeopardy, setting up the proceedings in the justice of the peace court as constituting such jeopardy.The replication of the solicitor was that the...