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37 Ark. 370

Watkins v. State

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided November 15, 1881

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1881-11-15

Hon. J. A. Williams, Special Judge. statement. In May, 1881, Percy Watkins, Joseph Wesson, Thomas Ferguson and Charles Beasley were jointly indicted in the Circuit Court of Jefferson county, by two separate counts in the same indictment, for burglary and larceny — the first count charging them with burglary, and the second with grand larceny.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1881-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently June 2020

8 state decisions

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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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Harrison, J.

¶1A bill of exceptions could only be sighed 1)3' the Special Judge before whom the case was tried and •the exceptions taken.

¶2Judge Pindall, the regular Judge, could not have had that direct and certain knowledge of the proceedings and rulings of the court as might enable him to make the matters excepted to a part of the record by a bill of exceptions..

¶3The paper purporting to be a bill of exceptions, and signed by him as such, therefore, constitutes no part of the record, and is a nullity.

¶4A count for grand larceny may be joined, with one for burglary, in the same indictment. Gantt’s Digest, sec. 1351; Toliver v. The State, 35 Ark., 395. And there may be a general verdict of guilty, on the whole indictmen. Howard v. The State, 34 Ark, 433; 1 Bish. Cr. Proceed., sec. 1015a; 3 Whar. Crm. Law, sec. 3047.

¶5But “where the counts are for distinct offenses,” says Mr. Bishop, “though a general verdict of guilty will operate as a conviction of all, still it has been held,, and it seems in reason just, that the defendant is entitled, on request, to have separate findings returned upon them, oi\ at least, to have the jury in some way pass upon each by itself.” 1 Bish. Crm. Proceed., sec. 1015a.

¶6As the least- punishment for burglary is three years imprisonment in the penitentiary, and, for grand larceny, one year, it is evident the defendant was not found guilty of both, but only of one or the other. That the verdict did not show which, was not an error for which the judgment might have been arrested, or should be reversed. The defendant could have required it to be certain and distinct.. 1 Bish. Crm. Proceed., sec. 1013.

¶7An indictment need not be signed by the prosecuting attorney. It is sufficient if found by the grand jury and indorsed by their foreman. Anderson v. The State, 5 Ark., 444; 1 Chit. Crim. Law, 324; 1 Arch. Crim. Prac., 97; 1 Bish. Crim. Proceed., sec. 702.

¶8Finding no error, the judgment is affirmed.

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