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155 Mass. 224

Commonwealth v. Devine

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 6, 1892

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1892-01-06

<p>Criminal Law — Indictment — Accessory — Subornation of Perjury.</p> <p>A charge of subornation of perjury may be joined with a charge of perjury in the same indictment, and the perjurer and suborner may both be included in it.</p> <p>An allegation in an indictment for subornation of perjury, that the perjurer “ wilfully and corruptly ” testified that she did not do certain things that were set out, whereas she “ then and there well knew ” that she did do those things, is a sufficient allegation that the perjurer testified falsely; and an allegation that the defendant did feloniously and maliciously incite the perjurer to commit perjury in the manner and form aforesaid is a sufficient averment that the defendant knowingly procured the perjury.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The defendant further objects that the indictment does not allege that Catherine Heaney testified falsely, or that the defendant knowingly procured her to do so. The allegations were, in substance, that she wilfully and corruptly testified that she did not do certain things that were set out, whereas she then and there well knew that she did do those things, and that the defendant did feloniously and maliciously incite her to commit perjury in the manner and form aforesaid. This sufficiently avers that she testified falsely; and the words 'feloniously and maliciously’ import that the defendant knowingly procured the perjury.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Richardson

Relies on Commonwealth v. Glover · Commonwealth v. Adams · Commonwealth v. Mullen

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1892-01-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 1937

9 state decisions

5018921900191019201930decided

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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Mobton, J.

¶1The defendant Devine objects that the indictment does not properly charge the crime of subornation of perjury, and that a charge for subornation of perjury and for perjury cannot be joined in one indictment. It is plain, upon the authorities, that the objection is not tenable on either ground. It is also clear that the principal and accessory may be both joined in one indictment. Commonwealth v. Adams, 7 Gray, 43. Commonwealth v. Adams, 127 Mass. 15. Commonwealth v. Darling, 129 Mass. 112. Commonwealth v. Mullen, 150 Mass. 394. Commonwealth v. Glover, 111 Mass. 395. Commonwealth v. Smith, 11 Allen, 243. Regina v. Tuckwell, 1 C. & M. 215. Train & Heard’s Prec. c. 15. The defendant further objects that the indictment does not allege that Catherine Heaney testified falsely, or that the defendant knowingly procured her to do so. The allegations were, in substance, that she wilfully and corruptly testified that she did not do certain things that were set out, whereas she then and there well knew that she did do those things, and that the defendant did feloniously and maliciously incite her to commit perjury in the manner and form aforesaid. This sufficiently avers that she testified falsely; and the words “ feloniously and maliciously ” import that the defendant knowingly procured the perjury. Commonwealth v. Adams, 7 Gray, 43. Commonwealth v. McCarty, 152 Mass. 577. There are other objections stated in the defendant’s motion to quash, but we understand the above to be the only ones argued upon his brief, and therefore that the others are waived.

¶2 Exceptions overruled.

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