Humphries v. State
| Decision Date | 30 April 1838 |
| Citation | 5 Mo. 203 |
| Parties | JAMES HUMPHRIES v. THE STATE. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
U. WRIGHT, for Appellant. Cited, 3 Chitty's Crim. Law, 814, 815, 816, 811, 843, 809; 1 Russell, 564; Rev. Code, 170.
HEARD (Circuit Attorney), for the State. Cited, Rev. Law, p. 171, § 31; 2 Russell on Crimes, 708-9; 3 Starkie's Ev. 1527 to 1533; 4 Mo. R. 304; Mo. Dig. 491, § 16; 1 Chitty's Crim. Law, 644; Russell on Crimes, 564-5.
At the July term of the Circuit Court for the county of Pike, James Humphries, a lad aged about sixteen years, was indicted on the 31st section of the second article of the statute respecting crimes and punishments. The jury found him guilty, and the court gave judgment against him. The 31st section (see Rev. Code, 172), provides that every person who shall on purpose and malice aforethought, shoot at or stab another, or assault or beat another with a deadly weapon, or by any other means or force likely to produce death or great bodily harm, with intent to kill, maim, ravish, or rob such person, he shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary, &c. The indictment charges, that on a certain day, the said James Humphries did, feloniously, on purpose, and of malice aforethought, make an assault on the body of one Martha Jane Orr, with his hands, feet, and other means likely to produce great bodily harm, with an intent to ravish and carnally know, against her will, the said Martha Jane Orr, and other wrongs to her then and there did, &c., &c. On the trial it appeared that, at the time the offense was committed, Martha Jane Orr was a child of of about nine years of age, and that Humphries overtook her in a path leading from her father's house to a sugar camp, and he there made an assault on her with an intent to know her carnally, without any circumstances of unusual violence with weapons; indeed he used no weapons other than hands, & c. When the evidence was closed, the defendant's counsel moved the court to instruct the jury, that if they believed from the evidence that Martha Jane Orr, at the time the supposed assault was made, was under the age of ten years, they must find for the defendant. The court refused to give the instruction. And secondly, that unless they find that the defendant was guilty of an assault on Martha Jane Orr, on purpose and of malice aforethought with means of force likely to produce great bodily harm, with an intent to ravish and carnally know her, they ought to find for the defendant; which instruction the court refused also. The jury find that the defendant is not guilty of an assault on Martha Jane Orr, on purpose and of malice aforethought, with his feet and hands, likely to produce great bodily harm; but they do find that he is guilty of feloniously assaulting and beating her, with intent feloniously to ravish...
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The State v. Welch
...is charged to have been made with a deadly weapon it must be established that the assault was in fact made with a deadly weapon. State v. Humphries, 5 Mo. 203; State v. Dunn, 221 Mo. 530; State Fletcher, 190 S.W. 321. (6) The court did not declare all the law of the case, in that the court ......
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...Stat. 1865, and, failing to use the descriptive words, “with malice aforethought,” is clearly bad. (State v. Comfort, 5 Mo. 357; Humphries v. State, 5 Mo. 203; State v. Harris, 34 Mo. 347.) II. Section 32 is designed to punish offenses not before defined or provided for; and plainly this in......
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State v. Meinhart
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