McDonald v. State

• Citation: 78 Miss. 369,29 So. 171
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Decision Date: 14 January 1901
• Parties: JAMES MCDONALD v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

29 So. 171

78 Miss. 369

JAMES MCDONALD v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 14, 1901

FROM the circuit court of Union county. HON. Z. M. STEPHENS Judge.

James McDonald, the appellant, was indicted by the grand jury of Benton county for the murder of William Henry Harrison. He applied to the circuit court of that county for a change of venue, and the application was granted, the case being transferred for trial to the circuit court of Union county. Thereupon the clerk of the circuit court of the first named county made a copy of the record in the cause, including the indictment, duly certifying to the same, and it was received and filed in the circuit court to which the cause had been referred.

The statute (code 1892, § 1412) provides that the clerk having made the transcript and certified it, shall "forward it, sealed up, by a special messenger or deliver it himself . . . to the clerk of the circuit court to which the trial is ordered to be removed."

On the trial of the case, the following instruction (the one condemned by the supreme court) was given for the state:

Second instruction for state: "The court instructs the jury for the state that while premeditation and malice aforethought are necessary ingredients in the crime of murder, this does not mean hatred or ill will, but means the same in law as deliberate design, and need not exist in the mind of the slayer for any definite time, not for days or hours, or even minutes, but if the design to kill existed but for an instant, at the very time the fatal blow was struck, this is sufficient premeditation to constitute the offense."

The appellant was convicted of murder, the jury fixing his punishment to be imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. A motion for a new trial was made by defendant, in which, among other grounds therefor, the following was assigned:

"2. Because there is no legal copy of the indictment in this court and no evidence, as required by law, that the copy on which the trial was had was transmitted to this court in the manner prescribed by law, and in fact the said copy of indictment on which trial was had was not transmitted to this court, or the clerk thereof, in either of the manners prescribed by law."

On the hearing of this motion the clerk of the circuit court of Union county testified as a witness in appellant's behalf, and swore that he had been clerk for twelve years and that the record of the case came to him by mail. This was all the evidence, save the order on the minutes of Union circuit court, next herein quoted, on the subject of the transmission of the record from the one court to the other.

There appeared on the minutes of Union circuit court in this case the following entry: "This day came the district attorney who prosecutes for the state. Came also the defendant, James McDonald, in his own proper person and represented by counsel, and in open court, at the bar thereof. And it appearing that the venue in this case has been removed from Benton county to Union county, and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court that the clerk of the circuit court of Benton county, Mississippi, has made out a transcript of the caption of the record in said case, also the proceedings impaneling the grand jury, of the indictment with the entries and indorsements thereon and all entries relative thereto in the record of his office, of the bonds and recognizances of the defendant, of the names of all the witnesses, and of all orders, judgments and other papers and proceedings belonging to or had in said cause, and has attached his certificate thereto, under his hand and with the seal of the court annexed, and has forwarded it, sealed up as required by law, together with all the original subpoenas in the case, to the clerk of this court to which the trial has been ordered to be removed, on motion of the defendant the court ordered a special venire . . . . [which was drawn]. Said venire facias is made returnable, and the cause set for Friday, the twenty-sixth day of January, 1900."

The motion for a new trial was overruled by the court below and the defendant excepted and appealed to the supreme court.

Reversed and remanded.

Mayes & Harris, for appellant.

Section 1412 of the code expressly directs that when a change of venue is granted in a criminal case, the transcript of the record of the court where the indictment was found shall be forwarded, sealed up, by a special messenger, or delivered by the clerk himself. The point in this case is that there is no evidence whatever in the record that this transcript was forwarded from Benton county to Union county by a special messenger, as the law required should be done. We submit that the record must affirmatively show this fact, else the Union county court had no jurisdiction to entertain the cause. The entry on the minutes shows that the clerk of the court did forward the record, but it does not show that he forwarded it by special messenger, as the law requires. Non constat but that he may have done so by mail or by express or in any other manner not recognized by law. It cannot he said that the phrase "as required by law," which occurs in the subsequent line, will import that he forwarded the record by a special messenger, first, because by every rule of construction, both grammatical and rhetorical, that phrase must be referred to the next nearest antecedent expression, which is that it was "sealed up," meaning thereby that it was sealed up as the law requires. Secondly, even if the phrase "as required by law" be improperly referred to the next preceding phrase, "and has forwarded it," such reference and connection could not import into the record in a capital case the idea that it was forwarded in a special manner, all that expression would mean being that the clerk forwarded the transcript as by law he was required to forward the same. It does not mean that he forwarded the same by special messenger. It is affirmatively shown by testimony that the record was transmitted by the clerk of Benton county to the clerk of Union county by mail. The circuit court of Union county was wholly without jurisdiction to try the case.

It cannot be said that the direction of this statute that the transcript shall be by the clerk delivered in person or else delivered by a special messenger, is merely directory, and may consequently be disregarded with impunity. Comparison of this statute with the other, which provides for the transmission of the transcript in a civil case (code, § 656), will show at once how sharply the attention of the legislature was directed to this matter, and how seriously they meant just what they said in respect to the method of transmission in criminal cases. In a civil case the transcript could be sent by mail, but in a criminal suit not. The intent of the legislature, or rather the reason for the distinction made, is obvious. It was to reduce to the minimum the opportunity...