State v. Bankhead

• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: RICHARDSON
• Citation: State v. Bankhead, 25 Mo. 558 (Mo. 1857)
• Decision Date: 31 October 1857
• Parties: THE STATE, Defendant in Error, v. BANKHEAD, Plaintiff in Error.

25 Mo. 558

THE STATE, Defendant in Error,

v.BANKHEAD, Plaintiff in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1857.

1. An indictment, founded on section 28, of article 8, of the act concerning crimes and punishments (R. C. 1845, p. 404), charging that the defendant, on, etc., at, etc., “did disturb a congregation of people, then and there met for religious worship, by then and there making an assault upon one H., so near to the place of worship of said congregation of people as to disturb the order of the meeting, contrary,” etc., is insufficient.

Error to Pike Circuit Court.

Broadhead, for plaintiff in error.

C. G. Mauro (circuit attorney), for the State

RICHARDSON, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The defendant was indicted under the 28th section, of art. 8, of the act concerning crimes and punishments. (R. C. 1845, p. 404.) The indictment contained four counts, but the jury found the defendant guilty only under the third, which is in these words: “And the jurors aforesaid, on their oaths aforesaid, further present, that the said Archer Bankhead, on the day and year aforesaid, and at the said county of Pike, did disturb a congregation of people then and there met for religious worship, by then and there making an assault upon one John F. Hedges, Jr., so near to the place of worship of said congregation of people as to disturb the order of the meeting, contrary,” etc.

The court overruled the motion in arrest, and the only question presented in the record is the sufficiency of the said count. The section on which the indictment was framed describes two distinct classes of offenses, and may be subdivided thus: First, “every...