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31 Mo. 120

State v. Smith

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided October 15, 1860

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1860-10-15

<p>1. In an indictment for the fraudulent and felonious uttering, publishing and selling of a counterfeit bank note, it is not necessary to describe said note specifically; (R. C. 1855, p. 1178, § 81;) where, however, the said note is described specifically, the proof must conform to the allegations.</p>

Relies on Zellers v. State · Frazier v. Gibson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1860-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently May 1938

10 state decisions

2018601870188018901900191019201930decided

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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Ewing, Judge,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2On the trial of this cause the circuit attorney read in evidence, in support of the charge, a bank bill which differed from that set out in the indictment in the initial letter of the middle name of the president of the bank, and this is one of the errors assigned.

¶3*121It was unnecessary for the pleader to have described the bill so minutely in the indictment as he did ; (R. C. 1855, p. 1178, art. 6, § 31;) but having done so, and professing as he does to set it out according to its tenor, he will be held to strict proof. Where the matter of a written instrument is introduced into the pleading, so as to imply that a correct recital is intended, very slight discrepancies between the instrument set out and that produced in evidence are fatal. (2 Rus. on Cr. 797; 2 East P. C. -.) And especially when the variance relates to an allegation descriptive of that which is material, as was the middle name or the initial letter of the middle name of the officer of the bank. (King v. Clark, 7 Mo. 271; Izetters v. State, 7 Ind. 660.)

¶4As for this reason the judgment will be reversed, it is unnecessary to notice other points in the bill of exceptions.

¶5Judgment reversed ;

the other judges concurring.
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