State v. Beagles

• Decision Date: 19 May 1903
• Citation: 174 Mo. 624,74 S.W. 851
• Parties: STATE v. BEAGLES.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

74 S.W. 851

174 Mo. 624.

STATE v. BEAGLES.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

May 19, 1903.

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE—APPEAL BY STATE— WRIT OF ERROR—WHEN ALLOWED.

1. Under Rev. St. 1899, § 2709, providing that when an indictment is adjudged insufficient upon demurrer, or judgment thereon is arrested, the court, from its own knowledge, or from information given by the prosecuting attorney that there is reasonable ground to believe that the defendant can be convicted of an offense, if properly charged, may cause the defendant to be committed to answer new indictments, or, if prayed by the prosecuting attorney, the court may, at its discretion, grant an appeal, the state is allowed an appeal only in the cases and under the circumstances mentioned in the statute.

2. Under Rev. St. 1899, § 2711, providing that, if no appeal be taken by the state in any case in which an appeal would lie on behalf of the state, the prosecuting attorney may prosecute a writ of error in the Supreme Court in like manner as such writ may be prosecuted by defendant, writs of error will only be allowed in cases in which an appeal would lie under section 2709.

3. Under Rev. St. 1899, §§ 2708, 2709, 2711, providing for an appeal or writ of error by the state in a criminal prosecution only in cases where the indictment is quashed or adjudged insufficient upon demurrer, or when judgment thereon is arrested, neither an appeal nor a writ of error will lie from a ruling of the trial court that the information upon which defendant had been put on trial had been quashed by the filing of a new information.

Error to Circuit Court, Vernon County; H. C. Timmonds, Judge.

An information was filed against R. H. Beagles for defilement of his ward. A demurrer to the evidence was sustained on the ground that the information had been quashed, and the state brings error. Dismissed.

The Attorney General and C. D. Corum, for the State.

GANTT, P. J.

This record is before us on a writ of error sued out in behalf of the state. On the 27th day of January, 1902, the prosecuting attorney of Vernon county filed in the circuit court of said county an information against the defendant, charging him with the defilement of his ward. The defendant was arrested, duly arraigned, and pleaded "Not guilty." The cause was continued, and defendant entered into a recognizance for his appearance at the next term. At the May term, 1902, the cause was reached, and a jury impaneled, and the evidence on the part of the state was heard, and at its conclusion the record recites that "the defendant demurred to the evidence, and called the attention of the court to the fact that the information on which this trial was begun had been quashed, and, to show that it had been quashed, called the attention of the court to the rolls and record entries in cause No. 226, being a case entitled `The State of Missouri v. R. H. Beagles'; and, from an inspection of said rolls and record entries, the court finds that the information in the case on which this trial has so far progressed was on the 24th day of May, 1902, quashed under the provisions of section 2522, Rev. St. 1899, by the filing of the second information against the said defendant for the same matter. And the court therefore sustains the point raised by the defendant, that there is no information in this case on which to try the defendant." Thereupon the jury...