The State v. Wilson
| Decision Date | 01 October 1888 |
| Docket Number | 222 |
| Citation | 5 So. 52,40 La.Ann. 751 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | THE STATE OF LOUISIANA v. ELBERT WILSON |
APPEAL from the Third District Court, Parish of Lincoln. Barksdale J.
J Henry Shepherd, District Attorney, for the State, Appellee.
E. E Kidd, for Defendant and Appellant.
The indictment charges that the defendant did "feloniously and of his malice aforethought, with a dangerous weapon, to wit, a pistol, shoot J. W. Davis, with intent to kill and murder him.'
Having been tried, convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary, he has appealed, and rests his claim to relief on two bills of exception, a motion in arrest of judgment, and an assignment of error in this Court.
After conviction the accused claimed a new trial on the ground that the jury had been guilty of misconduct, to his prejudice, in this viz: that "during their deliberations upon their verdict" they obtained and examined a law-book and consulted the same with reference to the case, and that this misconduct on their part vitiates the verdict. Annexed to the defendant's bill, and brought up with it, is the testimony of the deputy sheriff, who states that the jury had a law-book in their hands prior to bringing in their verdict, but he did not know whether they examined it or not.
He further states that this was subsequent to their having been charged by the court, and, also, subsequent to the time when they had informed him that they had found a verdict, and requested him to inform the court.
If the jury had already concluded their deliverations and decided upon the verdict they were to render to the court, their examination of a law-book subsequently did not in any manner affect, or impair it, and it was not misconduct on their part, and the rights of the accused were not prejudiced. 35 Ann. 970, 96.
The motion for a new trial having been overruled, the defend sought to arrest the judgment on the ground that the verdict -- which was reduced to writing -- is null and void, because it is vague, uncertain and illegal in form; not in accordance with the written instructions of the court; and not responsive to the charge in the indictment, or "any charge of crime known to the law," and it cannot, therefore, be enforced.
The indictment is brought up in the original, and thereupon is indorsed the verdict of the jury, which is, ipsissimis verbis , viz:
There is special complaint made of the phraseology as being vague and uncertain, and our attention has been directed to the words "with and assault," and "sutinge," as illustrative.
It is clear to our minds that the idea the jury intended to convey by the former was, that they found the prisoner guilty of an assault with intent to murder, and only clothed that idea with inartificial verbiage.
Among the different forms of verdict which the judge directed the jury they might render, is the one following, to...
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