Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

306 So. 2d 636

Sanders v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided January 27, 1975

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1975-01-27

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently December 1991

1 federal appellate ·

Relies on Spears v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1975-01-27

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

SUGG, Justice.

¶1Sanders was indicted under Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-29-45 (1972) for using obscene language .in a telephone conversation. He was convicted in the Circuit Court of Choctaw County and sentenced to two years in the penitentiary.

¶2The indictment is, in part, as follows:

[D]id wilfully, unlawfully, and feloni-ously use profane, vulgar, indecent, threatening, obscene, and insulting language over the telephone, said profane, vulgar, indecent, threatening, obscene, and insulting language being “I Want You,” ....

¶3The defendant demurred to the indictment and assigned as grounds the following:

1. The indictment charges no crime known to the law, and is, therefore, wholly void.
2. The language in the indictment “I want you” is neither profane, vulgar, indecent, threatening, obscene or insulting when used over the telephone.

¶4The question of whether the indictment charges a crime is a question of law for decision by the court. In Spears v. State, 253 Miss. 108, 175 So.2d 158 (1965), this Court stated:

Whether the matter set out in the indictment is obscene or not is a question of law primarily for the court to decide as a matter of law. The court under the indictment in the case at bar could not have determined from the indictment whether or not the language was obscene, vulgar, indecent or insulting because it did not have the words before it to pass upon the question. (253 Miss, at 117, 175 So.2d at 162).

¶5The demurrer was overruled and this action by the trial court is assigned as error. We hold that the demurrer should have been sustained because the words “I want you,” standing alone, are neither profane, vulgar, indecent, threatening, obscene nor insulting.

¶6Reversed and appellant discharged.

GILLESPIE, C. J., and PATTERSON, INZER, ROBERTSON, WALKER and BROOM, JJ., concur.
/306/so2d/636 · .json · Public domain