State v. Wiley
| Decision Date | 12 December 1898 |
| Citation | 76 Miss. 282,24 So. 194 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE OF MISSISSIPPI v. THOMAS WILEY |
November, 1898
FROM the circuit court of Union county, HON. Z. M. STEPHENS, Judge.
Thomas Wiley, the appellee, defendant in the court below, was indicted for violating § 1219, code 1892, which section is in these words: "If any person shall profanely swear or curse or be drunk in any public place, in the presence of two or more persons, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined not more than ten dollars for each offense."
Upon a trial before a jury, the evidence was conflicting as to whether the accused said of and to the Rev. Mr. Stroup, "You are a God-damned rascal and a God-damned liar, " or simply, "You are a damned rascal and a damned liar." In other respects the case for the prosecution was well made out. At the conclusion of the evidence, the state asked the court to instruct the jury that if they believed from the evidence that defendant used either form of expression, then his utterance was profane. This the court below declined to do, but modified the instruction by erasing the latter form of expression, giving the charge as modified. The defendant was acquitted, and the state appealed, as provided for by code of 1892, § 39, paragraph 2.
Argued orally by Wiley N. Nash, attorney-general, for appellant.
No counsel appeared for the appellee.
The court erred in striking out the words set out as having been stricken from the instruction for the state. Says the court in Gaines v. State , 40 Am. Rep. 64, 65, through the learned Judge Cooper: "It is not absolutely necessary that the name of the deity should be used"--that is, to constitute profanity--"any words importing an imprecation of divine vengeance, or implying divine condemnation, so used as to constitute a public nuisance, would suffice." Citing cases. See, to the same effect, 2 Bish. New Crim. Law, sec. 79 (1), and 2 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (1st ed.), p. 424, the note where the authorities are collated. The very words here stricken out were held to constitute profanity in Holcomb v. Cornish , 8 Conn. 375.
The court, therefore, erred in its holding as to what constituted profanity.
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Brendle v. City of Houston
...of Divine vengeance, or implying Divine condemnation, so used as to constitute a public nuisance." Id. (citing State v. Wiley, 76 Miss. 282, 24 So. 194 (1898)). However, the statement "Go to hell, you low-down devils" was held not be profane because it "lacked the imprecation of Divine veng......
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Duncan v. United States
...required of the courts, it lacks any `imprecation of divine vengeance' and does not `imply divine condemnation.' State v. Wiley, 76 Miss. 282, 24 So. 194, 71 Am. St. Rep. 531. There was simply a rude request or order to go to hell, with no necessity to obey, no power to enforce obedience, a......
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Town of Torrington v. Taylor
... ... prosecutor. There was no evidence of willful disturbance. 11 ... C. J. S. 819, 822; State v. Fogerson, 29 Mo. 416. No ... public offense was charged. State v. Jackson (La.) ... 111 So. 486; State v. Breawx (La.) 47 So. 876; ... Compton ... offense; the language proven was not profane. Stafford v ... State (Miss.) 44 So. 801; State v. Wiley ... (Miss.) 24 So. 194; 1 C. J. S. 405. The petition ... presented was not offensive. Tainter v. State (Ind.) ... 154 N.E. 275; McInnis v. State ... ...
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Orf v. State
...contention that it does not have lead to this appeal. The trial court permitted this case to go to the jury under the authority of Wiley v. State, 76 Miss. 282. The Wiley case fails to support the lower contention and negatives the idea that the word damn constitutes profanity per se. Our s......