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24 Ala. App. 333

134 So 896

Dowdy v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided May 26, 1931

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1931-05-26

Relies on Coburn v. State · Whitley v. State · 17 Ala. App. 504 - McMullen v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1931-05-26

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently June 1974

4 state decisions

2019311940195019601970decided

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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BRICKEN, P. J.

¶1 The prosecution in this case was predicated upon a purported indictment, which attempted to charge this appellant with a misdemeanor, to wit, an assault with a weapon. He was tried and convicted by the jury of an “attempt to assault with a weapon,” his fine being fixed at $10.

¶2 The indictment does not show authentication as provided by Code 1907, § 7300 (Code 1923, § 8682), 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.”

¶3 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, 17 Ala. App. 504, 86 So. 175; Whitley v. State, 166 Ala. 42, 52 So. 203; Bilbo v. State, 1 Ala. App. 74, 55 So. 927; Banks v. State, 13 Ala. App. 41, 69 So. 242; Smiley v. State, 11 Ala. App. 67, 65 So. 916; Joyner v. State, 78 Ala. 448; Wilson v. State, 128 Ala. 17, 24, 29 So. 569; Coburn v. State, 151 Ala. 100, 44 So. 58, 15 Ann. Cas. 249.

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

¶5 Reversed and remanded.

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