Coe v. Commonwealth
| Decision Date | 30 September 1893 |
| Parties | COE v. COMMONWEALTH |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
Appeal from circuit court, Cumberland county.
John Coe, Sr., convicted of manslaughter, appeals. Affirmed.
Allen & Allen, for appellant.
W. J Hendrick, for the Commonwealth.
The offense charged in the indictment in this case is manslaughter, alleged to have been committed by the accused unlawfully, willfully, maliciously, feloniously, in a sudden affray, and not in his self-defense. The defendant filed a demurrer to the indictment, and also, after verdict of the jury, moved in arrest of judgment. The only ground upon which a judgment may be arrested is, as prescribed in section 276 Crim. Code, that the facts stated in the indictment do not constitute a public offense, within the jurisdiction of the court. One of the grounds upon which, according to section 165, a demurrer to an indictment may be sustained, is substantially the same as the one upon which a motion in arrest of judgment may be made, viz. that the facts stated do not constitute a public offense. But, if the demurrer is proper in this case at all, it is because the indictment does not substantially conform to the requirements of article 2 c. 2, tit. 6, of the Code. Section 124 provides the indictment must be direct and certain as regards (1) the party charged; (2) the offense charged; (3) the county in which the offense was committed, and the particular circumstances of the offense charged, if they be necessary to constitute a complete offense. The only cause for demurrer to the indictment in question that counsel urges is that the particular circumstances of the offense are not stated with that directness and certainty required by the Code, for there can be no question but the offense of manslaughter is the one intended to be, and which is in terms, charged. The circumstances of time, place, and manner of the commission of the offense, and also the person slain, are all stated with sufficient directness and certainty to show the court had jurisdiction, to apprise the defendant of the particular homicide which he is called on to answer, and to constitute a bar, in case of conviction, to another prosecution for the same offense. But, although the offense charged is manslaughter, the word "maliciously," used in describing the particular circumstances of the offense indicates a state of mind under which murder, not manslaughter, is...
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Bynum v. Commonwealth
...not hold that the use of both terms is necessary to make the indictment good. On the other hand, in the case of Coe v. Commonwealth, 94 Ky. 606, 23 S.W. 371, 15 Ky. Law Rep. 284, it is held that in an indictment for the words "in sudden affray" are sufficiently descriptive of the offense ch......
- Frey v. Commonwealth
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Frey v. Commonwealth
...or otherwise. This character of surplusage does not harm the defendant in the indictment and will not render it bad on demurrer. Coe v. Commonwealth, 94 Ky. 606; Commonwealth v. Jarboe, 86 Ky. 143, and other cases which might be Second: It is also insisted that the court erred in the submis......