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223 Ind. 140

59 N.E.2d 116

Drury v. State

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided February 14, 1945

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1945-02-14

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"(a) An indictment or information which charges the commission of a crime shall not be dismissed but may be amended on motion by the prosecutor at any time because of any immaterial defect, including: (1) any miswriting, grammatical error; misspelling or (2) any misjoinder of parties defendant or crimes charged; (3) the presence or absence of any unnecessary or repugnant allegation; (4) the failure to negative any exception, excuse, or proviso contained in the statute defining the crime; (5) the use of alternative or disjunctive allegations as to the acts, means, intents, or results charged; (6) any mistake in the name of the court or county in the title of the action, or the statutory provision alleged to have been violated; (7) the failure to state the time or place at which the crime was committed where time or place is not of the essence of the crime; (8) the failure to state an amount of value or price of any matter where such value or price is not of the essence of the crime; (9) any other defect which does not prejudice the substantial rights of the defendant. (b) The indictment or information may be amended in matters of substance or form by the prosecutor upon giving notice to the defendant and with the consent of the court, at any time before arraignment. When the information or indictment is amended, it shall be signed by the prosecuting attorney. (c) Upon motion of the prosecutor the court may at any time before, during, or after the trial permit an amendment to t”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 180 Ind. App. 450 - Briscoe v. State, Way v. State

Relies on State v. Hattabough · Malone v. State · 89 Ind. App. 52 - Doench v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1945-02-14

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently May 1979

9 state decisions

601945195019601970decided

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 →

*141 Starr, J.

¶1 An affidavit was filed in The City Court of the City of Evansville charging the appellant with assault and battery. He entered a plea of not guilty and was tried and convicted. He thereupon appealed to the Vanderburgh Circuit Court, which court permitted the filing, without the consent of appellant, of an “amended” affidavit charging the appellant with assault and battery with intent to kill, although the plea entered in the city court had never been withdrawn or in any way vacated or set aside. He was thereupon tried on the “amended” affidavit and was again convicted of assault and battery.

¶2 Whether the court below erred in permitting the filing of the “amended” affidavit is the only question presented.

¶3 The right to amend an affidavit is conferred by statute. Section 9-1124, Burns’ 1942 Replacement, § 2186, Baldwin’s 1984, permits the amendment of an affidavit in matter of substance or form at any time before the defendant pleads, while § 9-1133, Burns’ 1942 Replacement, §2132-1, Baldwin’s Supp. 1935, provides: “The court may at any time before, during or after the trial amend the indictment or affidavit in respect to any defect, imperfection or omission in form, provided no change is made in the name or identity of the defendant or defendants or of. the crime sought to be charged.”

¶4 This amendment changed the crime sought to be charged, as the crime charged in said amended affidavit is a felony, while the one charged in the original affidavit is only a misdemeanor, § 9-101, Burns’ 1942 Replacement, § 2009, Baldwin’s 1934; The State v. Hattabough (1879), 66 Ind. 223. They are separate offenses. Without deciding whether such an amendment could be made under any state of facts pver. appellant’s objection, certainly it was error to *142 allow same after appellant had interposed his plea. An amendment under § 9-1124, Burns’ 1942 Replacement, § 2186, Baldwin’s 1934, must be made before the defendant pleads. As the prosecution originated before The City Court of the City of Evansville, and as the appellant was there arraigned and pleaded to the affidavit, as affirmatively shown by the record, any further arraignment and plea was unnecessary, and the appellant should have been tried upon said affidavit which was filed before said city court. Eisenman v. The State (1875), 49 Ind. 520; Doench v. State of Indiana (1929), 89 Ind. App. 52, 165 N. E. 777.

¶5 Eisenman v. The State, supra, and Doench v. State of Indiana, supra, are cases which deal with appeals from a justice of the peace, but appeals from a city court are taken in the same manner as provided by law for appeals from a justice of the peace. Section 9-721, Burns’ 1942 Replacement, §2090, Baldwin’s 1934; §4-2403, Burns’ 1933, §11588, Baldwin’s 1934.

¶6 In the case of Malone v. State of Indiana (1913), 179 Ind. 184, 100 N. E. 567, cited in appellee’s brief, this court pointed out that “The record is silent and does not show that, at the time the prosecuting attorney was given permission to file an amended affidavit, appellant had pleaded to the charge against him either in the justice’s court or the circuit court... To sustain appellant’s contention, that the court’s action was erroneous, it would be necessary for the record to show affirmatively that a plea had been made and not withdrawn prior to the action of the court granting permission to amend the affidavit.” As heretofore indicated, the record herein does affirmatively show that appellant had interposed his plea.

¶7 Judgment reversed, with instructions that appellant *143 be held to trial on the affidavit on which he was tried in The City Court of the City of Evansville, and other proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

¶8 Note.—Reported in 59 N. E. (2d) 116.

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