The State v. Butcher

• Decision Date: 27 January 1890
• Citation: The State v. Butcher, 44 N.W. 239, 79 Iowa 110 (Iowa 1890)
• Parties: THE STATE v. BUTCHER
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

44 N.W. 239

79 Iowa 110

THE STATE v. BUTCHER

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

January 27, 1890

Decided January, 1890.

Appeal from Muscatine District Court.--HON. C. M. WATERMAN, Judge.

DEFENDANT was tried in justice's court on an information which accused him of "wilfully and unlawfully interrupting and disturbing a school," and convicted. He appealed to the district court, and was again convicted. From the judgment rendered in the district court he appeals.

REVERSED.

J. J Russell, for appellant.

H. J Lauder, County Attorney, for the State.

ROBINSON J.

OPINION

ROBINSON, J.

After the verdict was returned in the district court, and before judgment was rendered, defendant filed a motion in arrest of judgment, the grounds of which were, in substance, that the information was insufficient to sustain a conviction. The motion was overruled, and leave given the state to amend the information, which was done. Judgment was therefore rendered on the verdict.

I. The body of the information, as originally filed, was as follows "The above-named defendant is hereby accused of the crime of wilfully and unlawfully interrupting and disturbing a school, for that the defendant on the thirty-first day of January, A. D. 1889, at Montpelier township, in said county, did commit the crime of unlawfully and wilfully disturbing and interrupting the school taught by Miss Louisa Franklin in district number four, Montpelier township, in said county, contrary to the statute in such case made and provided; wherefore she prays that the said Ambrose Butcher may be arrested and dealt with as provided by law." The first question presented by the appeal is the sufficiency of that information to sustain a conviction. Section 4662 of the Code requires the information to contain "a statement of the acts constituting the offense, in ordinary and concise language, and the time and place of the commission of the offense, as near as may be." The facts constituting the offense should be stated with as much precision in an information as in an indictment. Code, secs. 4662, 4296; State v. Allen, 32 Iowa 491; State v. Bitman, 13 Iowa 485. It has been held sufficient to charge an offense in the language of the statute (State v. Curran, 51 Iowa 112, 49 N.W. 1006; State v. Brewer, 53 Iowa 735, 6 N.W. 62); but we think that rule does not apply when the language of the statute does not so fully describe the offense as to show the material facts which constitute it. It is not sufficient to charge a mere conclusion of law, as that the defendant has committed burglary or arson. Whart. Crim. Pl. & Pr., secs. 154-221. It is not sufficient to name the offense. The facts charged must show it. State v. Shaw, 35 Iowa 575; State v. McCormick, 27 Iowa 402. In this case, defendant was accused of committing the crime named, "for that the defendant," at the time and place named, "did commit the crime of unlawfully and wilfully disturbing and interrupting the school taught by Miss Louisa Franklin in district number four," in the county and township indicated. The acts constituting the offense are not stated. The statement does not show what was done, excepting by the averment of a legal conclusion. The information was defective, for the reasons stated in State v. Murray, 41 Iowa 580, and not sufficient to sustain a conviction. It is contended on the part of the state that the information was sufficient, in the absence of attack before the case was submitted to the jury. Section 4491 of the Code provides that a motion in arrest of judgment shall be granted to defendant, after verdict against him, "(1) upon any ground which would have been ground...