Johnson v. The Commonwealth
| Decision Date | 23 September 1882 |
| Citation | 80 Ky. 377 |
| Parties | Johnson v. The Commonwealth. |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
APPEAL FROM BELL CIRCUIT COURT.
L. FARMER FOR APPELLANT.
P. W. HARDIN, ATTORNEY GENERAL, FOR APPELLEE.
CHIEF JUSTICE HARGIS DELIVERED THE OPINION OF THE COURT.
The appellant was indicted and tried for the crime of murder. A verdict of guilty, and fixing his punishment at confinement in the penitentiary for life, was found against him. He was orally sentenced by the court, but the verdict and judgment were not spread upon the order-book. At the time the judgment was rendered the following entry was made on the minute-book, viz:
"COMMONWEALTH |
vs. > Written order or judgment."
"GEORGE JOHNSON. |
The minute-book was signed by the judge, and the court adjourned without the orders of the last day of the term, which were entered on the order-book, being signed by him also.
In this state of the records the appellant appealed or attempted to appeal. He was unable to obtain from the clerk of the lower court a transcript of the record; and on his motion, accompanied by affidavits, a rule and an alias rule were issued against the clerk, and after the expiration of more than six months that functionary responded to the rule by filing a copy of the verdict and judgment purporting to have been taken from the signed orders on the order-book.
The appellant was taken to the penitentiary before the judgment was signed by the judge, and while the skeleton minute on the minute-book, and the verdict and judgment written in full by the clerk on the order-book among the last day's unsigned proceedings of the term of the court, at which appellant was convicted, were the only record evidence of the verdict and judgment against him.
The law requires that "the proceedings of each day shall be drawn up by the clerk from his minutes in a plain, legible manner, which, after being corrected as ordered by the court, and read in an audible voice, shall be signed by the presiding judge."
"Any clerk offending herein shall be fined five hundred dollars." (Section 2, article 2, chapter 16, General Statutes.)
The preservation, certainty, and perpetuation of the records of the court is of the highest importance; and the safeguards which the law, for the purpose of rendering them permanent and conclusive, has thrown around them should be maintained with scrupulous care, and observed by the courts with ceaseless vigilance.
Upon their integrity and...
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...that it was reversible error for the judgment to be entered and signed after the term of court. We are cited to the case of Johnson v. Commonwealth, 80 Ky. 377; v. Commonwealth, 198 Ky. 515, 249 S.W. 763. In the Rooney Case it was held that the court was without jurisdiction to try the appe......
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Auxier v. Auxier
...Co. v. Farris, 159 Ky. 820, 169 S.W. 535; Comlth. v. Chambers, 1 J. J. Marsh. 108; Raymond v. Smith, 1 Metc. 65, 71 Am. Dec. 458; Johnson v. Comlth., 80 Ky. 377, many other cases which might be cited from this court. In the case of Ewell v. Jackson, supra, it was held that although the judg......
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Auxier v. Auxier
...Inter-State Petroleum Co. v. Farris, 159 Ky. 820; Commonwealth v. Chambers, 1 J. J. Mar. 108; Raymond v. Smith, 1 Met. 65; Johnson v. Commonwealth, 80 Ky. 377, and many other cases which might be cited from this In the case of Ewell v. Jackson, supra, it was held that although the judge ren......
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... ... the court, and signed by a judge, and that an unsigned ... judgment is no judgment at all. Commonwealth v ... Chambers, 1 J. J. Marsh. 108; Raymond, etc., v ... Smith, 1 Metc. 65 [71 Am. Dec. 458]; Johnson v ... Commonwealth, 80 Ky. 377; Ewell v ... ...