Coleman v. State
Decision Date | 24 April 1901 |
Citation | 62 S.W. 753 |
Parties | COLEMAN v. STATE. |
Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from district court, Freestone county; L. B. Cobb, Judge.
Josh Coleman was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Reversed.
Robt. A. John, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellant was convicted of murder in the second degree, and his punishment assessed at confinement in the penitentiary for a term of 25 years. The indictment charges "that Josh Coleman, on or about the ____ day of ____, one thousand and nine hundred, A. D. 1900, and anterior to the presentment of this indictment, in the county of Freestone," etc. Motion was made in arrest, because the indictment fails to allege the date of the commission of the offense. White's Ann. Code Cr. Proc. art. 439, subd. 6, provides that in the indictment the date of the commission of the offense shall be stated, and it shall be anterior to the presentment of the indictment, and not so remote that the prosecution charged is barred by limitation. In Barnes' Case (Tex. Cr. App.) 59 S. W. 882, a similar indictment to this was held fatally defective. That case cites State v. Tandy, 41 Tex. 291. For collation of authorities, see White's Ann. Code Cr. Proc. § 343. For this omission in the indictment, which is not a formal, but substantial, one under all the authorities, it is fatally defective, and the motion in arrest of judgment should have been sustained. The judgment is reversed, and the prosecution ordered dismissed.
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Ex Parte Woodland
...be tested by the laws of this State, and that, when so tested, the indictment is fatally defective, under the authority of Coleman v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 62 S.W. 753, wherein this court held that an indictment alleging the offense to have been committed "* * * on or about the ____ day of __......