Glasgow v. State
| Decision Date | 31 December 1876 |
| Citation | 68 Tenn. 485 |
| Parties | JAMES GLASGOW v. THE STATE. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
FROM TROUSDALE.
Appeal from the Circuit Court at Hartsville. F. S. WILSON presiding.
No record can be found.
The prisoner was convicted of murder in the second degree, and has appealed to this court.
The objection that Hon. N. W. McConnell, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, and who had been employed to prosecute before his election, and before the finding of the indictment, was presiding when the indictment was found, and ordered it spread upon the minutes of the court, and was also presiding when the plea of not guilty was filed, is not well taken; these were mere ministerial acts in nowise affecting the interests of the prisoner or the merits of the case. The law directs, in plain and unequivocal terms, what should be done; that this was done, was recited by the clerk on the minutes of the court, verified by the signature of the Judge--a mere formal act, awarding no process, deciding no question.
The omission to have spread the indictment upon the minutes would in no way have enlarged or diminished the rights of the accused.
The policy of the government in requiring a spreading upon the minutes, is to provide against the consequences of the loss, abstraction or destruction of the original.
A more serious objection arises upon the following entry of record:
Was this proceeding regular and according to the laws of the State? We think not.
There is no provision of the Constitution nor act of the Legislature authorizing or directing the constitution of a court, or the supply of a vacancy for incompetency or other cause, by the mode pursued in this case.
This was not an inferior court created by the Legislature, nor was it an election by the attorneys of the court, as allowed by ch. 78, sec. 1, of the act of 1870.
In the appointment or selection of special judges in criminal cases, the law authorizing it must be strictly pursued and observed. As already stated, there was no authority under the Constitution or by statute for the...
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State v Reid, 00-02619
...shows upon its back that it was found a "true bill," which it does. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-19-101 (1997); see also Glasgow v. State, 68 Tenn. 485 (Tenn. 1876) (failure to spread felony indictment upon the minutes of the court neither enlarges nor dismisses the accused's rights since the o......
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Davidson v. State
...the cautionary and conservative ground for use in the case when the original papers are lost or mislaid. This Court in 1876 in Glasgow v. State, 68 Tenn. 485, held that the failure to spread the indictment for a felony upon the minutes of the court neither enlarges nor dismisses the rights ......
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Steadman v. State, 926
...ministerial acts by an incompetent judge, which do not affect the merits of the case, do not invalidate the proceedings. See Glasgow v. State, 68 Tenn. 485 (1876). Here, the trial judge ruled on the merits, albeit on the pleadings without an evidentiary hearing. Since determination of the m......
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State ex rel. Roberts v. Henderson
...court bench, presided as judge at Wilson's second trial. Reviewing the judgment of conviction this Court held on authority of Glasgow v. State, 68 Tenn. 485 and Neil v. State, 70 Tenn. 674, 675, that while under the Constitution and statute parties may waive the disqualification of an incom......