People v. Webb
| Decision Date | 04 June 1901 |
| Citation | 86 N.W. 406,127 Mich. 29 |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
| Parties | PEOPLE v. WEBB. |
Error to circuit court, Kalamazoo county; George M. Buck, Judge.
Frank Webb was convicted of conveying instruments and tools into jail to assist a prisoner to escape, and he brings error. Reversed.
N.H. Stewart, for appellant.
Sheridan F. Master, Pros. Atty., for the People.
One Allison, and a companion named Slater, being confined in the county jail at Kalamazoo, in default of bail, on a charge of larceny, on the 10th of April, 1899, Frank Webb, the respondent in this cause, went to the office of the attorney having charge of the defense of said Allison and Slater, and asked him how the boys were off for reading matter, and produced two books, and requested the attorney to deliver the same to them. They were taken by the attorney to the sheriff's general office, and, when his errand was made known to the sheriff, he said he 'would bet there were files or saws in the covers of the books,' and upon examination they were found to contain both. The jail is entered only through the sheriff's general office, which is contiguous to the place of confinement of prisoners, or jail proper, and also to the sheriff's residence; all being together in one building. The defendant has brought error upon a conviction and sentence under section 11,315 of the Compiled Laws of 1897, which provides that: 'Every person who shall convey into any jail, prison, or other like place of confinement, any disguise, or any instrument, tool weapon or other thing, adapted or useful to aid any prisoner in making his escape, with intent to facilitate the escape of any prisoner there lawfully committed or detained, or shall by any means whatever, aid or assist any such prisoner in his endeavor to make his escape therefrom, whether such escape be effected or attempted, or not, and every person who shall forcibly rescue any prisoner, held in custody upon any conviction or charge of an offense, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than seven years; or, if the person whose escape or rescue was effected or intended, was charged with an offense not capital, nor punishable by imprisonment in the state prison, then the punishment for the offense mentioned in this section, shall be by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.' Counsel raise three questions, viz.: (1) Whether taking tools into the general office was conveying them into the jail, within the meaning of the statute; (2) whether the information is defective because it does not allege that the defendant attempted to convey these tools into the jail, it having appeared that they were conveyed into the office merely; (3) whether the circumstantial evidence under which counsel claim that the defendant was convicted proves his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The information recites, in substance, the confinement of Allison and Slater under due process, charged with a felony, which is fully described, and charges the defendant with feloniously conveying into the jail two steel files and two steel saws the same being adapted and useful to aid any prisoner in making his escape, with intent to facilitate the escape, and to aid in the escape, of said Allison and Slater. The sufficiency of an information does not depend upon the proofs. It either is or is not, upon its face, a good information; and, the defendant having been convicted of the full offense charged, it would be unnecessary to discuss the propriety of a conviction for attempt under this information but for the purpose of a new trial. An attempt is necessarily charged in...
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