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1 Shan. Cas. 455

Fair v. State

Tennessee Supreme Court

Decided September 15, 1875

Tennessee Supreme Court · decided 1875-09-15

<p>PERJURY. Plea of former acquittal when there was a fatal variance.</p> <p>An acquittal upon an indictment charging- that the oath taken was upon “the Holy Gospel,” is no har to a trial upon an indictment in which the charg-e is that defendant was “sworn with an uplifted hand.” [See Const., art. i., see. 10, and notes.]</p> <p>Cited with approval: Williams v. State, 7 Hum., 48.</p>

Decided 1875-09-15

Nicholson, C. J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2H. IT. Fair was convicted of perjury in the criminal court at Memphis, and sentenced to three years in the penitentiary.

¶3He put in a plea of former acquittal for the same offense, which was held bad, and thereupon he was tried *456by a jury and found guilty. We are furnished with no bill of exceptions as to 'the proof or the charge of the court, and must therefore pesume that there was no error.

¶4But there is a bill of exceptions setting out the record of the former case, which is relied on upon the plea of former acquittal. It does appear from this record that defendant was acquitted of the charge of perjury, based on the same oath on which the present indictment is based. But in the former it is charged in the indictment that the oath taken ivas upon “the Holy Gospel,” whereas, in the present indictment the charge is that he was sworn with an uplifted hand.

¶5It was held in the case of Williams v. The State, 7 Hum., 48, that if the bill of indictment charge that the prisoner swore upon the Holy Evangelists, and the proof show that he appealed to God with an uplifted hand the variance is fatal.

¶6It follows that an acquittal upon the former indictment was no bar to a trial on the present indictment, and that there was .no error -in disallowing the plea of former acquittal.

¶7The judgment is affirmed.

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