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17 Ala. App. 597

88 So 55

Hanners v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided June 29, 1920

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1920-06-29

S. Williams, Judge. Albert Planners was charged with murder in the first degree, convicted of manslaughter in the first degree, and he appeals. Counsel discuss the various exceptions to evidence and to charges given and refused, with citation of authority, but in view of the opinion it is not deemed necessary to here set them out.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The concurrence of at least twelve grand jurors is necessary to find an indictment; and when so found it must be indorsed ‘A true bill,’ and the indorsement signed by the foreman.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including 21 Ala. App. 464 - Honeycutt v. State

Relies on Coburn v. State · Whitley v. State · Joyner v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed and remanded · Decided 1920-06-29

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently December 1981

17 state decisions

801920193019401950196019701980decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

BRICKEN, P. J.

¶1 The indictment does not show authentication as provided by Code 1907, § 7300, which reads:

“The concurrence of at least twelve grand jurors is necessary to find an indictment; and when so found, it must be indorsed ‘a true bill’ and the indorsement signed by the foreman.”

¶2 For the failure of the indictment to bear this necessary indorsement, it is not a valid indictment and will not support a judgment of conviction. This identical question has been decided, as here, in the following cases: Memory McMullen v. State, ante, p. 504, 86 South. 175; Whitley v. State, 166 Ala. 42, 52 South. 203; Bilbo v. State, 1 Ala. App. 74, 55 South. 927; Banks v. State, 13 Ala. App. 41, 69 South. 242; Smiley v. State, 11 Ala. App. 67, 65 South. 916; Joyner v. State, 78 Ala. 448; Wilson v. State, 128 Ala. 17, 24, 29 South. 569; Coburn v. State, 151 Ala. 100, 44 South. 58, 15 Ann. Cas. 249.

¶3 No valid indictment having been shown, it is unnecessary to consider other questions presented.

¶4 Reversed and remanded.

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