Westbrooks v. State
| Decision Date | 10 April 1899 |
| Citation | 25 So. 491,76 Miss. 710 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | ANDERSON WESTBROOKS v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI |
March 1898
FROM the circuit court of Pike county, HON. WILLIAM P. CASSEDY Judge.
The appellant, Westbrooks, was defendant in the court below, was convicted, and appealed to the supreme court. The facts, out of which the questions decided arose, are stated in the opinion of the court.
Affirmed.
The appellant was convicted of unlawfully selling intoxicating liquors, and appeals and assigns error therein. Before the trial began, upon a proper affidavit made for that purpose, he moved the court for a bill of particulars of the charge, which the court overruled, and, upon the trial, he proposed to prove his general good character, and this evidence was rejected.
A bill of particulars, even in civil cases, was unknown to the ancient common law, and its use in later times is said to have arisen under the common law counts in actions of debt and assumpsit. 3 Enc. Pl. & Pr., 518. In criminal cases the common law required directness and particularity in the averments of the indictment, and there was no need in general for a note of the matters to be given in evidence to be furnished to the defendant, and there was no practice of that sort except in special cases.
However, in cases of barratry, where the charge is general, merely alleging the accused to be a common barrator, without more, the practice, according to Brooke, was, before the trial, to furnish the defendant with a note of the evidence to be relied on, and the same rule prevailed in indictments for being a common scold, but of the offenses of which the charge may be so general as these, there are only a few set down in the books. 2 Hawkins Pleas of the Crown, 315. If being a common barrator or a common scold be crimes in this state, and our constitution does not require a more particular charge than anciently, doubtless a bill of particulars might be demanded. But in general all the particulars required to be given are charged in the body of the indictment, and the practice of giving the bills of particulars has been unknown among us.
Indictments for unlawfully selling intoxicating liquors, precisely like this, have been frequently before this court, and they have been uniformly held to be sufficient. We think that § 705, code 1892, does not apply to criminal cases, and that the action of the court...
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De Angelo v. State
...in which he resided, which is not a trait involved in the alleged offense of an accessory before the fact to robbery. Westbrooks v. State, 76 Miss. 710, 25 So. 491; Jefferson v. State, 102 Miss. 174, 59 So. Maston v. State, 83 Miss. 647, 36 So. 70; Horton v. State, 36 So. 1033; Wharton Crim......
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Ambrose v. State
...as the indictment is the formal document which places the defendant on notice of the charge against him. See Westbrooks v. State , 76 Miss. 710, 25 So. 491, 492 (1899) ; Sanders v. State , 141 Miss. 289, 105 So. 523, 525 (1925) ; State v. McClendon , 251 Miss. 181, 168 So.2d 737, 737-38 (19......
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State v. Straughan
...to recognize the use of bills of particulars in criminal trials. See, Gayden v. State, 262 Ala. 468, 80 So.2d 501; Westbrooks v. State, 76 Miss. 710, 711, 25 So. 491; People v. Thorn, 138 Cal.App. 714, 33 P.2d 5; State v. Noell, 220 Mo.App. 883, 295 S.W. 529; State v. Wells, 162 S.C. 509, 1......
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Sanders v. State
... ... "All things contained in this chapter, not restricted by ... their nature or by express provision to particular courts, ... shall be the rules of decision and proceeding in all courts ... whatsoever." ... It is ... true that our court in Westbrooks v. State, ... 76 Miss. 710, 25 So. 491, held that a bill of particulars ... under this statute did not apply to criminal cases, but that ... does not prevent the common-law rule being applicable ... [105 So. 532] ... to criminal cases. The statute does not mandatorily confer ... any ... ...
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Bill of Particulars
...and the practice of giving the bills of particulars has been unknown among us. Id. § 325, at 485 n.39 (quoting Westbrooks v. State, 25 So. 491 (Miss. 1899)). Even though the early form of indictment was verbose, a bill of particulars was routinely granted in certain types of criminal cases,......