State v. Gassard

• Decision Date: 01 December 1903
• Citation: 77 S.W. 473,103 Mo.App. 143
• Parties: STATE OF MISSOURI, Appellant, v. GASSARD et al., Respondents
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

77 S.W. 473

103 Mo.App. 143

STATE OF MISSOURI, Appellant, v. GASSARD et al., Respondents

Court of Appeals of Missouri, St. Louis

December 1, 1903

Appeal from St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction.--Hon. L. A Steber, Judge.

AFFIRMED.

Judgment affirmed.

Chas P. Williams for appellant.

(1) The indictment is sustainable under either section 2105, section 2118, or sections 2751 and 7256, Revised Statutes 1899. (2) The contention as to misjoinder in official delinquency is not borne out by common-law decisions. Regina v Atkinson, 2 Lord Raymon 1248; Lake's case, 3 Leon 268. (3) The indictment is sufficiently full and definite to inform the defendants of the offense wherewith they stand charged.

REYBURN, J. Bland, P. J., and Goode, J., concur.

OPINION

REYBURN, J.

The State has appealed from the judgment of the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction sustaining a demurrer and motion to quash, assigning as reasons that there was a misjoinder of parties, as the offense charged was of such a character that two parties could not be charged jointly as guilty thereof; that the indictment was indefinite, vague and uncertain, and failed to sufficiently inform defendants of the offense with which they were charged; the indictment being in the following language:

"The grand jurors of the State of Missouri, within and for the body of the city of St. Louis, now here in court, duly impaneled, sworn and charged, upon their oaths present; that on the 4th day of November, one thousand nine hundred and two, at the city of St. Louis aforesaid, the same being the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of said year, at the city of St. Louis aforesaid, and in each ward and election precinct of the said city, a general election was held pursuant to the Constitution and laws of the State of Missouri, and that at said election there was submitted to the people of the city of St. Louis for their choice and election, certain proposed amendments to the Constitution of said State, and that at said city of St. Louis and on said day, Samuel Gassard, John J. Shea and W. W. Wilkinson were the duly appointed and qualified judges of election for said election in the Second precinct of the Twenty-second ward of said city, and that it was their duty then and there, upon the close of the balloting at said election, to make a careful count and canvass of all votes cast at said election precinct, both for and against the said proposed constitutional amendments, and duly certified to the board of election commissioners a true count of such votes cast, but that the said Samuel Gassard, John J. Shea and W. W Wilkinson were then and there willfully guilty of neglect of their aforesaid duty, and did then and there neglect to truly and properly count the ballots cast at...