Abram v. State

Decided July 1, 1872

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1872-07-01

Harris, J. The accused (Abram) was indicted for murder in the circuit court of Copiah county, and he was, at the June term, 1852, of said court, found guilty of the charge alleged in the indictment, and upon a motion being made for a new trial, and refused by the court, the plaintiff in error brought the case to this court by writ of error. 1. Every caption of an indictment should show that the in-dictors were of the county for which the court was holden. 5 Bac.

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Decided 1872-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently March 1910

4 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Yebgee, J.:

¶1The judgment in this case must be reversed. It does not appear by the record that the grand jury were sworn. It has been repeatedly held that this is a fatal defect.1 There is a recital in the indictment, that the grand jury “ were duly elected, empan-elled and sworn.” But the court in the case of Cody v. State, 3 How. R., 29, say: “ The recital of this fact in the bill of in*665dictment, cannot supply the omission of it in the record. The record may aid the indictment, but not e converso. For the authority of the jury to find the indictment must be contained in the record, and the bill becomes no part of the record until it is acted upon and returned into court in the manner prescribed by law.”

¶2Let the judgment be reversed, and the cause remanded.

¶3 Archbold Cr. Pr. & Pl., 535; Stokes v. State, 34 Miss., 621.