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109 Ark. 498

Friend v. State

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided October 20, 1913

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1913-10-20

F. Gautney, Judge; An accessory before the fact can not be convicted of a felony under an indictment charging him with being a principal, unless he is present at the commission of the crime. Kirby’s Dig., § § 1560, 1561; 37 Ark. 274; 41 Ark. 173; 55 Ark. 593; 96 Ark. 58; 22 Cyc. 455, and note 2.

Relies on Roberts v. State · Williams v. State · Smith v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

reversed · Decided 1913-10-20

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently January 1935

6 state decisions

30191319201930decided

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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McCulloch, C. J.

¶1Appellant stands convicted of the crime' of grand larceny under an indictment which accuses him of being a principal in the commission of the offense, not an accessory before the fact.

¶2The testimony adduced by the State establishes the fact that one Kimmel committed the crime of grand larceny by stealing a horse in the State of Missouri and bringing the same into this State. The proof tends to show that appellant encouraged and advised the commission of the offense, but there is no testimony in the record tending to show that he was present when the offense was committed nor when the animal was brought into the State. In fact, there is no testimony showing that the stolen property was ever brought into the possession of Appellant. No't being present when the offense was committed, he could not properly be indicted as a principal, but should have been indicted as accessory. Smith v. State, 37 Ark. 274; Williams v. State, 41 Ark. 173; Roberts v. State, 96 Ark. 58; Hughey v. State, 109 Ark. 389.

¶3The Attorney General confesses error on this ground, and it is clear that his confession must be sustained. The judgment of conviction is therefore reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings.

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