Colson v. State
| Decision Date | 01 March 1916 |
| Citation | 71 Fla. 267,71 So. 277 |
| Parties | COLSON v. STATE. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Error to Criminal Court of Record, Hillsborough County; Lee J Gibson, Judge.
Bert Colson was convicted of attempting to corrupt a juror, and brings error. Reversed.
Syllabus by the Court
Section 3476 of the General Statutes of 1906 of Florida, prescribing punishment for the crime of bribery, does not, in the definition of the crime denounced, include all the essential elements of such crime.
An information charging one with an offense under the provisions of section 3476 of the General Statutes of 1906 of Florida is fatally defective which charges that the offense was committed by offering to a juror a gift of money, and fails to allege knowledge on the part of the accused of the official character or capacity of the person to whom the bribe was offered, and that the thing offered was of value.
COUNSEL Thos. Palmer, G. H. Cornelius, and Dickenson & Dickenson, all of Tampa, for plaintiff in error.
T. F West, Atty. Gen., and C. O. Andrews, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Bert Colson was convicted in the criminal court of record for Hillsborough county upon an information charging him in four counts with----
'attempting to corrupt one E. E. Durham, who was then and there a juror in the criminal court of record in and for Hillsborough county, Florida, by offering a gift of money to the said E E. Durham, with the intent to influence the decision of the said E. E. Durham, in relation to a certain cause pending in said court and set for trial on the 14th day of April, A. D. 1915, wherein the state of Florida was plaintiff and Byron Crandon, alias ByronCrandell, was defendant.'
The information contained four counts: The first count charged the offense in the language above quoted; the second count charged the offense as having been committed by 'promising a gift of money'; the third charged the defendant with 'offering a gift of money to the said E. E. Durham with the intent to bias the opinion of the said E. E. Durham,' etc.; and the fourth count charged the defendant with promising a gift of money with the intent to bias the opinion of the juror.
The defendant by his attorneys moved the court to quash the information upon several grounds, the first of which was that the information charged the defendant with the commission of no crime or offense under the laws of the state, and, fourth, that the information failed to allege that E. E. Durham was at the time of the alleged offer of a bribe a juror in any cause or matter pending in court.
This motion to quash the information was overruled, and the defendant placed on trial. The jury returned a verdict of 'guilty as charged in the information,' and to the judgment the defendant takes a writ of error.
The seventh and last assignment of error rests upon the order of the court overruling the defendant's motion to quash the information.
In the case of Brunson v. State, decided by this court in November 1915, and reported in 70 So. 390, it was held that an indictment which charged the defendant with violating section 3476 of the General Statutes...
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Nell v. State
...in his official capacity, though there is some conflict in the authorities.' That paragraph itself is none too clear. In Colson v. State, 1916, 71 Fla. 267, 71 So. 277, a conviction for bribery was reversed because the information, charging the defendant with offering 'a gift of money' fail......
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Coleman v. State Ex Rel. Mitchell
... ... Deputy Tax Collector was 'unlawfully offered and promised ... a reward' and we are convinced that the information can ... not be supported by Section 7486. The statutory crime of ... bribery was considered by this Court in Streeter v ... State, 89 Fla. 400, 104 So. 858; Colson v ... State, 71 Fla. 267, 71 So. 277; State v ... Pearce, 14 Fla. 153 ... There ... is no error in the record and the judgment appealed from is ... hereby affirmed ... WHITFIELD ... and TERRELL, JJ., concur ... BROWN ... and BUFORD, JJ., dissent ... ...
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Nell v. State
...of this Court in Streeter v. State, 89 Fla. 400, 104 So. 858 (1925), Brunson v. State, 70 Fla. 387, 70 So. 390 (1915), Colson v. State, 71 Fla. 267, 71 So. 277 (1916), and Raines v. State, 65 So.2d 558 (Fla.1953). We have considered the cases cited for conflict and have determined that we h......
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Creswell v. State
...the person to whom the bribe is offered. State v. Howard, 66 Minn. 309, 68 N.W. 1096, 34 L. R. A. 178, 61 Am. St. Rep. 403; Colson v. State, 71 Fla. 267, 71 So. 277; v. King, 103 W.Va. 662, 138 S.E. 330; Petitti v. State, 7 Okl. Cr., 12, 121 P. 278. Mr. Wharton, in his work on Criminal Plea......