State v. Tibbetts
| Decision Date | 26 December 1893 |
| Citation | 86 Me. 189,29 A. 979 |
| Parties | STATE v. TIBBETTS. SAME v. HALEY. |
| Court | Maine Supreme Court |
Exceptions from supreme judicial court, Frankin county.
Joseph Tibbetts and Frank Haley were convicted before a magistrate for violation of the game laws, and on appeal were again convicted, and move in arrest of judgment. Exceptions overruled.
Geo. L. Rogers, Co. Atty., for the State. B. Emery Pratt and H. L. Whitoomb, for defendants.
HASKELL, J. Complaint before a magistrate for hunting and kiling deer in violation of the game laws. The offense is charged in two several counts, averring the destruction of one deer in each count, at different times. A trial was had upon the plea of not guilty, and the defendant was convicted and fined $80 and costs. From this sentence the defendant appealed, and was again tried in the court below, and convicted. He now moves in arrest of judgment:
(1) Because the magistrate imposed a fine in excess of his jurisdiction. Suppose he did. One remedy was by appeal, and the defendant has availed himself of it.
(2) Because a verdict was not taken upon each count separately. It was taken upon each count. A general verdict of guilty on several counts is a verdict on all, and therefore on each; and any injustice from such procedure cannot be remedied by motion in arrest of judgment, but may be on motion that the verdict be set aside as unwarranted by the evidence. State v. Hood, 51 Me. 363. If one count be good, judgment will not be arrested. State v. Hadlock, 43 Me. 282. If, however, several substantive offenses be charged in separate counts, and a conviction be had upon all by a general verdict of guilty, judgment may be arrested upon those that are bad, for it "may be several, though the verdict is general." State v. Burke, 38 Me. 574. Motions in arrest of judgment reach the sufficiency of the charge, not the justice of the verdict State v. Rounds, 76 Me. 123-126.
(3) Because the first count does not allege the act to have been "unlawfully" or "maliciously" done. These specific words need not be averred. The allegation "against the peace and contrary to the statute" is an equivalent of the former, and the latter is not made an element of the offense by the statute. Both counts being valid, judgment must go on both.
Exceptions overruled. Judgment for the state.
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Mccaskill v. State
... ... superfluous to allege it to be unlawful. If the act charged ... is not unlawful, or was not unlawfully done, an allegation ... that it is unlawful, or was unlawfully done, does not render ... it indictable. Wharton's Cr. Pl. & Pr. § 269; State ... v. Tibbetts, 86 Me. 189, 29 A. 979; State v ... Murphy, 43 Ark. 178; United States v. Thompson, 6 ... McLean, 56, Fed. Cas. No. 16,490; Nash v. State, 2 ... G. Greene (Iowa) 286; 22 Cyc. 332; 10 Ency. Pl. & Pr ... At ... common law indictments for felonies should allege the acts ... ...
-
State v. Knowles
...was equivalent to use of the word 'unlawfully', the Court concluded that the indictment was sufficient. Id. See also: State v. Tibbetts, 86 Me. 189, 29 A. 979 (1893). A predecessor of 15 M.R.S.A. § 755 11-R.S.1944, c. 132 § 15-was in effect when State v. Chase was decided. Like § 755, the 1......
-
State v. Leavitt
...v. Payson, 37 Me. 361. As remotely bearing upon the subject, see State v. Burke, 38 Me. 574; State v. Hadlock, 43 Me. 282; State v. Tibbetts, 86 Me. 189, 29 Atl. 979. A distinction must be made between charging several substantive offenses in the same count, and charging several acts that c......
-
State v. Chase
... ... The allegations in this indictment that the respondent killed and murdered Yoksus 'against the peace of said State, and contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided' are equivalent to an allegation that the killing was unlawfully done. State v. Tibbetts and State v. Haley, 86 Me. 189, 191, 29 A. 979. See also State v. Merrill, 132 Me. 103, 167 A. 172, and State v. Skolfield, 86 Me. 149, 29 A. 922 ... [149 Me. 89] It is to be noted, however, that although this indictment uses the phrase 'feloniously, wilfully and of his malice ... ...