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121 Mo. 476

State v. Marshall

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided May 8, 1894

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1894-05-08

— How. ~W. ~W. Rucker, Judge. The indictment in this case charges no crime. It alleges a promise of marriage made by appellant “to one Annie Mason,” but fails to allege who it was he seduced! The judgment should be reversed. The indictment in this case follows the language of the statute creating the offense, clearly charges the crime of which defendant has been convicted, and gave notice to him of the accusation he was required to meet. R. S. 1889, sec. 3486.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently February 1897

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed AND remanded · Decided 1894-05-08

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Gantt, P. J.

¶1The defendant, Isaac Marshall, was indicted, tried and convicted, at the October term, *4771893, of the Chariton circuit court, for the seduction, under promise of marriage, of Annie Mason.

¶2The indictment is in these words: “The grand jurors for the state of Missouri chosen, selected and summoned from the body of the county of Chariton in the state of Missouri, and impaneled, sworn and charged to inquire within and for the body of said county of Chariton, upon their oath do present and charge that one Isaac Marshall on or about the-day of August, 1892, at the county of Chariton in the state of Missouri, then and there unlawfully and feloniously under and by virtue of a promise then and there made by him, the said Isaac Marshall, to one Annie Mason, an unmarried female of good repute under eighteen years of age, to wit, of the age of seventeen years, did then and there unlawfully and feloni-ously seduce and debauch, against, the peace and dignity of the state.”

¶3The defendant challenged the sufficiency of the indictment in the circuit court by a motion in arrest, which was overruled. He renews his objections here.

¶4The indictment alleges a promise of marriage by defendant to Annie Mason but it nowhere charges that he seduced her or any other female, and is for that reason fatally defective. The judgment is reversed and cause remanded.

All of this division concur.
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