Vaughan v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 01 January 1821
• Citation: 4 Va. 273
• Parties: Betsy Vaughan v. The Commonwealth
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

4 Va. 273

Betsy Vaughan v. The Commonwealth

Supreme Court of Virginia

January 1, 1821

This was an application for a Writ of Error to a judgment of the Superior Court of Petersburg. The petitioner was indicted, in two Counts, for the unlawful shooting, and for the malicious shooting of Sally Walker, an infant daughter of Jenny Walker. She was acquitted of both charges. She was also indicted, in two Counts, of the unlawful, and of the malicious shooting of Jenny Walker. To this Indictment she pleaded not guilty, and also another plea, purporting to be a plea of Auterfoits Acquit. It set forth that she had been indicted for the unlawful and malicious shooting of Sally Walker, the infant daughter of Jenny Walker; the Indictment was set out in haec verba; that she had been tried and acquitted of the same; it then averred that she was the identical Betsy Vaughan who had been so indicted and acquitted, and that the said shooting in the Indictment aforesaid charged, and of which she was acquitted, was the identical shooting which in this Indictment is alleged to have been committed by her the said prisoner, and not other and different, & c. To this plea the Attorney for the Commonwealth replied generally. The jury found the prisoner guilty of malicious shooting, as in the Indictment against her is alleged, and ascertained the term of her imprisonment in the Public Jail and Penitentiary-house to be two years, and " they find that she hath not been before acquitted of the same offence."

The prisoner moved the Court for a new trial, which being refused, a Bill of Exceptions was filed to the opinion of the Court, which set forth two grounds on which the new trial was asked. 1. That it was proved on the trial, that the prisoner on the--day of August, 1821, discharged a gun loaded with powder and small shot, at Jenny Walker, a free woman of colour, with intent to disfigure the said Jenny Walker: that the prisoner, by the said discharge, did shoot the said Jenny, and her child, Sally Walker: that the said prisoner had been indicted, tried, and acquitted of the charge of the unlawful and malicious shooting of the said Sally, which act of shooting said Sally Walker, was the same act of shooting as that charged in the Indictment, on which the prisoner has been found guilty in this Cause: and that it was further proved by the record of the Examining Court, that the prisoner had been remanded for trial, on a charge of...