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46 Mich. 441

People v. Jones

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided June 29, 1881

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1881-06-29

Exceptions before judgment from the DecordePs Court of Detroit. Information for an attempt to commit larceny from the person. Despondent was convicted below. '

Cited in Bouvier (1914)’s definition of “Attempt”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Conviction sustained · Decided 1881-06-29

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently May 1983

1 district · 12 state decisions

2018811890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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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Marston, C. J.

¶1The respondent was charged with and convicted of an attempt to commit a larceny from the person, and the proof tended to show that he had put his hand into the outside cloak pocket of Emma Bellair; that there was no property of any kind in the pocket at that time and nothing therefore was taken therefrom. It was claimed that under such circumstances he could not be convicted.

¶2*442We are of a contrary opinion. The charge is of an attempt to commit a crime. In burglary, and many cases of attempts, the intent is gathered from the taking or other act done. But this is not the only way of proving the intent; if it were, in many eases attempts to commit crime would go unpunished.

¶3We fully concur in the views expressed by the Massachusetts court in Com. v. McDonald 5 Cush. 365. We think this is not only the better, but the only rule of law that could be adopted or recognized with safety to the rights of the public or of individuals.

¶4It must be certified to the Recorder’s Court that we discover no error in the record, and that court is advised tc proceed to judgment.

The other Justices concurred.
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