State v. Edwards

Decided October 15, 1865

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1865-10-15

The indictment was as follows : “ State of Missouri, County of Crawford. — In the Crawford Circuit Court, June Term, A. D. 1859. “The grand jurors for the State of Missouri, einpannelled, sworn and charged to inquire within and for the body of the County of Crawford, upon their oath present, that a certain slave named Garrison, the property of one James H. Montery, on the first day of January, in the year A. D. 1859, in the county aforesaid, did then and there unlawfully…

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently December 1906

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1865-10-15

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Holmes, Judge,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2The indictment charges the defendant with receiving stolen goods from a slave, knowing them to have been stolen by the slave from his master. The statute under which the indictment appears to have been framed (§ 43 of Art. III., R. C. 1855, p. 580) had no application to such a case. The possession by a slave of the property of his master, is the possession of the master. (Hite v. State, 9 Yerg. 198.) If the defendant had taken the property from the slave with intent to steal, he might have been indicted for the larceny; or, for trading with slaves, he might have been proceeded against under the 33d sec. of the “Act concerning slaves.” (R. C. 1855, p. 1477.) The indictment was bad on motion in arrest.

¶3Judgment reversed.

The other judges concur.