State v. Mack

• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: O'NIELL, C. J.
• Citation: State v. Mack, 138 So. 106, 173 La. 571 (La. 1931)
• Decision Date: 03 November 1931
• Docket Number: 31,412
• Parties: STATE v. MACK

138 So. 106

173 La. 571

STATE v. MACK

No. 31,412

Supreme Court of Louisiana

November 3, 1931

Appeal from First Judicial District Court, Parish of Caddo; E. P Mills, Judge.

Lemon Mack, alias Pearl Williams, was convicted of the crime of stealing money from the person of another, and she appeals.

Affirmed.

Chris Barnette, of Shreveport, for appellant.

Percy Saint, Atty. Gen., E. R. Schowalter, Asst. Atty. Gen., and James U. Galloway, Dist. Atty., and Nash Johnson, Asst. Dist Atty., both of Shreveport, for the State.

OPINION

O'NIELL, C. J.

The defendant was convicted of the crime of stealing money from the person of another, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary. After the verdict was rendered, and before the sentence was pronounced, she filed a motion in arrest of judgment, pleading that there was no statute defining the offense of stealing from the person, or declaring it a crime to steal money or property from the person of another. She pleaded also that if Act 40 of 1914, under which she was convicted, could be construed as defining the crime of stealing from the person, or as declaring it a crime to steal from the person of another, the statute would be violative of the provision in section 16 of article 3 of the Constitution that every statute shall have a title indicative of its object. The district judge overruled the motion, and the defendant's attorney took a bill of exceptions. That is the only bill of exceptions in the record.

Act 40 of 1914, p. 104, is an amendment and re-enactment of section 1 of Act 133 of 1904, p. 302, entitled "An Act to provide a penalty for the crime of stealing or attempting to steal from the person of another, when such theft does not in law amount to robbery, or such attempt, to an assault with intent to rob." The statute declares merely that whoever shall steal from the person of another, when such theft does not in law amount to robbery, or shall attempt to steal from the person of another, when such attempt does not in law amount to an assault with intent to rob, shall, on conviction, be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for a term not exceeding five years. The language of the act of 1904 was exactly the same, except that the penalty was imprisonment at hard labor for the term not exceeding five years.

It was not necessary for the statute to define the crime of stealing from the person. That is one of the forms of larceny. Until it was graded or classified as a special offense, as it was by section 5 of Act 107 of 1902, p. 162, it was subject to the same punishment as any other form of larceny. State v. Wilson, 107 La. 344, 31 So. 759. Theretofore, under section 811 of the Revised Statutes, "attempting to rob from the person" was subject to a special penalty; but larceny from the person, or stealing from the...