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36 Ala. 270

Bryant v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1860

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1860-06-15

Eeom the Circuit Court of Tuskaloosa. Tried before the Hon. Wm, S. Mudd.

Relies on Nabors v. State · State ex rel. Battle · Stein v. McArdle & Waters

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1860-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently December 1949

16 state decisions

30186018701880189019001910192019301940decided

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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STONE, J.

¶1It was declared in the case of Nabors v. The State, (6 Ala. 200,) and must be regarded as settled, that the terms of our circuit courts expire at 12 o’clock of the last Saturday night of the terms fixed bylaw.; — See, also, State, ex rel. Battle, 7 Ala. 259. It-is also well settled, (and we have no authority to disregard this statutory rule,) that a bill' of exceptions, not signed during the term, or within ten days thereafter pursuant to consent of counsel in writing, is not a part of the record. —Code, §§2358, 3649; Shep. Digest, 435, §4; Stein v. McArdle, 25 Ala. 561. Under these plain rules, we cannot look, *272for any purpose, to what is claimed in this record as a bill of exceptions. This narrows our inquiry to what appear» on the face of the indictment, as it is now presented.

¶2[2.] The alleged defect in the present indictment, and which is pressed on our consideration for a reversal, is, that it does not sufficiently identify and describe the person alleged to have been slain. The indictment charges, that the defendant “ killed-- Butler, whose Christian

¶3name is to the grand jury unknown.” In 2 Sale’s Pleas of the Crown, 181, it is said: “ An indictment of murder cujusdum ignoii is good.” — See, also, Hawk. P. C. book 2, ch. 25, §71; Whar. Am. Cr. Law, § 251; State v. Irwin, 5 Blackf. 343; Rex v. Mary Smith, 6 C. & P. 151; Reg. v. Campbell, 1 C. & K. 82; 3 Greenl. Ev. § 22. In the case of the State v. Jackson, (4 Blackf. 49,) the person was described as “an ludian of this State, of the Miami nation of Indians, the name of which said Indian to the jurors aforesaid is wholly unknown.” So, in Reed v. The State, (16 Ark. 497,) the person slain was described as “ a certain Wyandotte Indian, whose name is .unknown to the grand jury.” These averments were ruled sufficient. So, in Cameron v. The State, (13 Ark. 712,) the defendant was indicted for assaulting “ one Rice, whose Christian name is to the grand jurors aforesaid unknown;” and the conviction was sustained. The Code of Alabama (section 3505) declares, that “ The indictment must be certain, as to the person charged; but when his name is unknown to the jury, it may be so alleged without any further idendifieation.” This is a legislative declaration that, as.to the 'party charged, the. words that his name is to the grand jurors unknown, supply the requisite certainty. We can perceive no reason for requiring greater certainty in the description of the party slain, than the statute requires in describing the party accused; although it i& admitted that the effect of a misdescription in the former case may be more serious thau in the latter. We regard section 3505 of the Code as indicating a policy to be observed on kindred questions.

¶4The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed, and the sentence of the law must be executed.

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