State v. Ryan

• Court: Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)
• Citation: 13 Minn. 343
• Parties: STATE OF MINNESOTA v. JOHN RYAN.
• Decision Date: 01 January 1868

13 Minn. 343 STATE OF MINNESOTA
v.
JOHN RYAN. Supreme Court of Minnesota.

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Appeal from a judgment of the district court, Steele county.

W. A. Gorman and G. E. Cole, for appellant, cited:

F. R. E. Cornell, Atty. Gen., for respondent.

WILSON, C. J.

The indictment on which the defendant was tried is in the following language:

"John Ryan, the defendant herein, is accused by the grand jury of the county of Steele and state of Minnesota, by this indictment, of the crime of murder in the first degreee, committed as follows: The said John Ryan, on the fourth day of July, 1867, at the city of Owatonna, in said county of Steele, without the authority of law, and with malice and aforethought, with a premeditated design to effect the death of one Thomas Dorsey, killed him, the said Thomas Dorsey, by then and there, feloniously, with force and arms, assaulting, beating, striking, and stabbing him, the said Thomas Dorsey, with a deadly weapon, to-wit, a knife, then and there in the

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possession of the said John Ryan, and inflicting on him, the said Thomas Dorsey, then and there, with said weapon, divers injuries and mortal wounds, of which the said Thomas Dorsey died, contrary to the statutes in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state of Minnesota."

The jury, after hearing the evidence and charge of the court, returned this verdict: "We, the jury in the case of the state of Minnesota against John Ryan, do find a verdict of murder in the first degree."

The defendant's counsel thereupon moved the court for a new trial, and in arrest of judgment, which motion was denied, and judgment having been pronounced and rendered on the verdict, the defendant removed the cause into this court by appeal.

The homicide with which the defendant is charged was committed in July, 1867, and the indictment was found and the trial below had in April, 1868. By our law the penalty for murder in the first degree was death, until March 5, 1868, when the legislature, by an act approved that day, abolished the death penalty as a punishment for crime, except in cases where the jury recommend such punishment; but by section 4 of that act it is provided that "the provisions of this act shall not apply nor extend to any act done, nor offence committed prior to the passage hereof, but the provisions of law now in force, and applicable to the crime of murder in the first degree, as well in respect to the penalty affixed to the commission of such crime, as in all other respects, shall be and remain in full force and effect as to such offence heretofore committed." Laws 1868, c. 88.

By another act, approved March 5, 1868, the state is allowed seven peremptory challenges to individual petit jurors, when the offence charged is punishable with death or imprisonment in the state prison for life. Laws 1868, c. 86. Prior to that the state had the right of challenge only for cause. On this trial the state peremptorily challenged one

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of the petit jurors, and the challenge was allowed by the court, to which the defendant excepted.

The defendant urges, among other objections to the proceedings and judgment, that the indictment and verdict are insufficient; that chapter 86 of the Laws of 1868 is applicable to the trial of crimes committed before its passage, is an ex post facto law, and therefore repugnant to the constitution; and that if the last-mentioned law is applicable so also is chapter 88, and therefore the death penalty cannot be inflicted, the jury not having so recommended.

The indictment I think is good. It is substantially in the form given in the General Statutes, which this court has decided and the statutes declare to be sufficient. The particular objections urged to it are: (1) That it does not charge the offence of murder in the first degree; (2) that it does not show that the offence was committed before the indictment was found. Our statutes declare the killing of a human being without the authority of law, — when perpetrated with a premeditated design to effect the death of the person killed or any human being, — murder in the first degree. Such a killing is by the indictment clearly charged, which is sufficient. Gen. St. c. 108, §§ 1, 10.

The statute also declares the allegation of time sufficient if it can be understood therefrom "that the offence was committed at some time prior to the time of finding the indictment." This indictment not only comes up to this requirement, but I think it shows clearly that the offence was committed on the fourth day of July, 1867. The charge that the defendant on the fourth of July, 1867, killed the deceased, implies, ex vi termini, that the latter died on that day. No merely formal error can be considered, for our statute declares that "no indictment is insufficient, nor can the trial, judgment, or other proceeding thereon be affected by reason of any defect or imperfection in matter of form, which does not tend to the prejudice of the substantial rights of the defendant upon the merits. Chapter 108, § 11.

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2. As to the...