Rivers v. State

Decision Date10 December 1935
Citation164 So. 544,121 Fla. 887
PartiesRIVERS v. STATE.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

Error to Circuit Court, Osceola County; Frank A. Smith, Judge.

Rodie Rivers was convicted of perjury, and she brings error.

Reversed.

COUNSEL Murray W. Overstreet, of Kissimmee, for plaintiff in error.

Cary D Landis, Atty. Gen., and Roy Campbell, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

OPINION

ELLIS Presiding Justice.

The plaintiff in error was tried in Osceola county for the offense of perjury in September, 1933. The jury by its verdict found her guilty as charged, and in October the court sentenced her to a term in the state prison. She seeks a reversal of the judgment on writ of error.

Counsel for the accused attacked the sufficiency of the indictment by a motion to quash it. The first question presented here for determination is the correctness of the court's order in overruling the motion to quash.

The indictment is in one count, and alleges in substance that the grand jury for Osceola county in March, 1932, was convened in regular session; that it was investigating the death of one Jim Tyson, whom it was alleged Jesse Wade killed unlawfully and feloniously within Osceola county; that a subpoena to testify before the grand jury in said investigation was issued to Rodie Rivers and served upon her; that she appeared before the grand jury in response to the subpoena; that she was duly sworn to tell the truth in the investigation which the grand jury was making, 'and the issue which was at that time before the said Grand Jury, in session as aforesaid, was whether or not one Jessie Wade had stabbed one Jim Tyson with a knife in Osceola County Florida on March 20 1932'; that Rodie Rivers testified and said in substance 'that she was not in the same room with Jim Tyson and Jessie Wade, when Jessie Wade struck Jim Tyson with a knife; whereas, in truth and fact, as she the said Rodie Rivers then and there well knew, it was not the truth that she was not in the same room with Jessie Wade and Jim Tyson when Jessie Wade struck Jim Tyson with a knife.'

It is alleged that the accused, Rodie Rivers, was in the room with Wade and Tyson when Wade struck Tyson with a knife. It is, of course, alleged that her denial of her presence in the same room with the two men when one struck the other with a knife was untrue.

The objection raised by the motion to quash was that it did not appear from the allegations of the indictment that the alleged false statement of the witness as to her presence in the same room with the two men when one struck the other with a knife was in relation to a matter material to the investigation then being made by the grand jury.

An investigation by a grand jury of a crime that is within its jurisdiction to investigate and to indict for is a judicial proceeding in a court of justice, and perjury committed before such a jury in such an investigation is within that 'phase of the crime' provided for by section 7477 C.G.L. 1927 (Rev.Stats. 1892 § 2561). Craft v. State, 42 Fla. 567, 29 So. 418, 419; Tindall v. State, 99 Fla. 1132, 128 So. 494.

The matter which was being investigated by the grand jury was the nature or character of the act, whether unlawful, accidental or justifiable of Wade when he struck Tyson with the knife. The indictment in three or four clauses charged that the grand jury was investigating the death of Tyson, 'who, it has been alleged, had been unlawfully and feloniously killed' within Osceola county 'by one Jessie Wade.' In another clause the indictment charges that the grand jury 'was inquiring and investigating into the death of the said Jim Tyson.' In still another clause the indictment charges that the jury was 'inquiring and investigating into' the 'said death, killing, and murder of the said Jim Tyson,' and again it charges that 'the issue which was at that time before the said Grand Jury, in session as...

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7 cases
  • Grand Jury Investigation, In re, s. 43644 and 43649
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • 5 Diciembre 1973
    ...held: '. . . under our judicial system a grand jury is an appendage or adjunct to the circuit court . . .' Then, in Rivers v. State, 121 Fla. 887, 164 So. 544, 545, our Court further '. . . An investigation by a grand jury of a crime that is within its jurisdiction to investigate and to ind......
  • Gordon v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • 25 Julio 1958
    ...which will support a charge of perjury if the other elements are present. Craft v. State, 42 Fla. 567, 29 So. 418; Rivers v. State, 121 Fla. 887, 164 So. 544; Tindall v. State, One of the principal points assigned by the appellants for reversal of the judgment under attack is that the alleg......
  • Wolfe v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • 20 Diciembre 1972
    ...Yarbrough v. State, 79 Fla. 256, 83 So. 873, 874 (1920); Hall v. State, 136 Fla. 644, 187 So. 392, 403 (1939), and Rivers v. State, 121 Fla. 887, 164 So. 544 (1935). A verdict of acquittal should have been As the State puts it: 'The basic issue (in the Milander trial upon which the perjury ......
  • Bazarte v. State, 949
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
    • 30 Diciembre 1959
    ...State, 79 Fla. 256; 83 So. 873; Bolen v. State, 103 Fla. 22, 137 So. 8; D'Alessandro v. State, 116 Fla. 749, 156 So. 702; Rivers v. State, 121 Fla. 887, 164 So. 544; Keir v. State, 152 Fla. 389, 11 So.2d 886; Rader v. State, Fla., 52 So.2d 105; Smith v. State, Fla., 92 So.2d This requiremen......
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