Jimerson v. State

• Citation: 93 Miss. 685,46 So. 948
• Decision Date: 22 June 1908
• Docket Number: 13,384
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Parties: JAMES JIMERSON v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

46 So. 948

93 Miss. 685

JAMES JIMERSON v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

No. 13,384

Supreme Court of Mississippi

June 22, 1908

FROM the circuit court of Madison county, HON. WILEY H. POTTER Judge.

Jimerson appellant, was indicted for an assault and battery with intent and in the attempt to kill and murder one Ray. His demurrer to the indictment for duplicity was overruled. From the conviction and sentence, following his trial before a jury, he appealed to the supreme court.

The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.

Judgment affirmed.

Hallam & Hallam, for appellant.

The contention of appellant is that Code 1906, § 1043 enumerates, manifestly, quite a number of separate and distinct felonies, and provides punishment for their commission and that a person cannot lawfully be charged with the commission of any two or more of such felonies in one and the same count of the indictment. State v. Brown, 28 So. 752; Teat v. State, 53 Miss. 439; Hill v. State 72 Miss. 527, 17 So. 375.

The question then arises, are there two or more felonies charged in this one count?

The statute provides, first: "Every person who shall be convicted of shooting at another * * * wilfully." It certainly cannot be denied that this is a whole and complete offense and that a person indicted for that offense alone could be lawfully convicted and punished therefor. State v. Brady, (La.) 2 So. 556.

Second: Every person who shall be convicted "of any assault or assault and battery upon another with any deadly weapon or other means of force likely to produce death, with intent to kill and murder, or to maim, ravish or rob such other person." Manifestly the intent to kill and murder is one offense; to maim, another; to ravish, another; and to rob, another. Would it be good pleading to charge any two or more of those felonies in one count of an indictment? We think not.

Third: Every person who shall be convicted of any assault or assault and battery upon another with any deadly weapon or other means or force likely to produce death "in the attempt to commit any murder, rape, manslaughter, burglary, larceny, or other felony." Is it not also true that the offenses of attempting to commit murder, rape, manslaughter, burglary, larceny, etc., are felonies separate and distinct from each other and from the felonies enumerated in the preceding part of the section There can be no escape from the proposition. Then, in this case, has the appellant's demand for the nature and cause of the accusation been satisfied or has he been placed on trial on an indictment charging in one count a number of separate felonies?

In Miller v. State, in the first count of the indictment the defendant was charged with having unlawfully sold and retailed vinous and spiritous liquors in a less quanity than one gallon and also with having suffered the same so sold to be drank in and about his house. The court said: "The first member of the section makes it unlawful to sell in a less quantity than one gallon. The violation of the act is completed by the sale of the prohibited quantity * * *. The second member of the section makes it unlawful for the person selling the spirits to suffer the same to be used about his housse, whatever may be the quantity which is sold * * *. This count is therefore manifestly bad for duplicity and uncertainty." Miller v. State, 5 How (Miss.) 250.

The one-count indictment in this case charges the offenses of shooting at another, wilfully, under the first clause of section 1043; it charges an assault and battery with intent to kill and murder, and also an assault and battery with intent to maim, under the second clause of the section; it charges an assault and battery in the attempt to commit murder under the third clause of the section; it charges an assault with intent to kill and murder, and an assault in the attempt to kill and murder under the second and third clauses of the section; and, by inference, it charges an assault and battery in the attempt to commit manslaughter under the third clause of the section. The appellant might lawfully have been indicted and convicted for any of these offenses. We pause to ask, of what offense, under this one count and the instruction for the state, was he in fact convicted?

The words used in the statute "or in the attempt to commit any murder," etc., must be understood to mean something. Attempt and intent are not synonymous, and therefore, in using the words above quoted the legislature had a purpose. They either mean that an assault in the attempt to kill and murder is an offense unto itself, or they are absolutely meaningless. If they do mean anything, or what they say they mean that an assault in the attempt to murder is a felony distinct from an assault with intent to kill and murder; and, if they do mean this, then this one-count indictment is double. The case of Ex parte Burden, 92 Miss. 14, 45 So. 1, is decisive of the question that intent and attempt are not synonymous. State v. Marshall, 14 Ala. 411; Kline v. State, 44 Miss. 317; Karrington v. State, 54 Miss. 490; Dee v. State, 68 Miss. 601, 9 So. 356; State v. Thompson, 25 South. (La.) 954; Burgess v. State, 81 Miss. 482, 33 So. 499; Breeland v. State, 79 Miss. 527, 31 So. 104.

R. V. Fletcher, attorney general, for appellee.

The sole question is as to whether the indictment is duplicitous because of charging both an intent to kill and an attempt to kill.

It is manifest that if two offenses are charged they are charged as being committed by the same act. Only one criminal act is involved and the utmost that can be said is that the indictment alleges that in the commission of this criminal act appellant both intended to kill and attempted to kill. It is, of course, perfectly apparent that the statute denounces precisely the same penalty for both of these offenses, if indeed they are to be considered as separate offenses. Nor can there be any question that under the peculiar wording of this indictment, conviction or acquittal on one of the charges would be a complete bar to the other one.

It requires much subtlety of reasoning to distinguish between an assault and battery with intent to kill and of an assault and battery in the attempt to kill. It is hard to conceive of any clear distinction which could be drawn between these two alleged separate and distinct offenses; they both involve the idea of an assault, and if an assault is committed with intent to kill, certainly it could not be said that there had been no attempt to kill. On the other hand, one could not attempt to kill another with a deadly weapon unless he committed an assault with such weapon having the intent to do murder. If courts have drawn any distinction between the two, necessarily such distinction is over-refined, and not in accord with logic or common experience. But this point must be disposed of upon a somewhat different principle. It is very true that our court, and perhaps every other court in the union, has condemned the practice of joining two separate, distinct and independent offenses in the same count. Nobody gainsays the universality of this rule. But the question here is, whether the indictment presents, in fact, two separate, distinct and independent offenses. It has been well said by our court that while it is true as a general rule that two crimes cannot be charged in the same count in the indictment, there are exceptions to this rule. Larceny and burglary may be joined in a single count. Roberts v. State, 55 Miss. 421.

Of course this Roberts case rests upon a different principle, but I mention it as an illustration of the fact that the rule has well defined exceptions. It is my contention that the case at bar presents such an exception. Our court has held that it is proper practice to charge in an indictment for arson that the defendant did set fire to and burn the cotton house worth so much, the property of A. B.; and three bales of cotton contained therein, the property of B. C. This was held not to be charging two offense in the same count within the condemnation of the rule, since both the house and the cotton were consumed by the same criminal act. Clue v. State, 78 Miss. 661, 29 So. 516.

It has been often held, and twice very lately, that the indictment may properly charge the larceny of distinct articles the subject of separate ownership, provided the larceny was committed at the same...