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47 Ala. 53

Croker v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1872

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1872-01-15

Tried, before Hon. W. L. Whitlock. The indictment in this case was as follows, omitting the caption, The defendant went to trial on plea of not guilty, and the jury returned the following verdict: “We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of robbery; imprisonment ten years in penitentiary.” The court passed sentence on this verdict on October 14, 1871, but the judgment entry does not show that defendant was asked before sentence was passed if he had. anything to say why…

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“too indefinite. The term `currency,' when applied to the medium of trade, means equally coin, bank notes, or notes issued by the government.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 488 So. 2d 44 - Shubert v. State

“ten dollars in money of United States currency”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 488 So. 2d 44 - Shubert v. State

Relies on Brister v. State · Franklin v. State · Perry v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1872-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently April 1986

11 state decisions

20187218801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

B. E. SAEEOLD, J.

¶1The indictment chargéd the appellant with feloniously taking “ten dollars in money of United States currency, and five gallons of whiskey, less one pint, the property of Lemuel Reaves, from his- person and presence, and against his will, by putting him in such fear as imwillingly to part with the same.”

¶2The description of the money is too indefinite. The term “currency,” when applied to the medium of trade, means equally coin, bank notes, or notes issued by the government.- — Webster’s Dict.

¶3The averment that the taking of the money and whiskey was from the person and presence of the party robbed, is not the inclusion of two separate offenses conjunctively in the same count. Property taken in the presence of the oAvner, under circumstances constituting robbery, is taken from his person.-1 Russ, on Crimes, 873.

¶4The failure to serve a copy of the indictment and a list of the jurors on the defendant, who was in custody, one entire day before the trial, is a reversible error. Flanagan v. State, 46 Ala. 703.

¶5The misconduct of the jury in dispersing and mingling with other persons after the cause was submitted to them, has been held by this court to be a good cause for a new trial, but not a ground for arrest of judgment. Franklin v. State, 29 Ala. 14; Brister v. State, 26 Ala. 107.

¶6Another error apparent from the record is, the defend*58ant was not asked if lie had anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced on him. Perry v. State, 43 Ala. 21.

¶7The verdict, “We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of robbery; imprisonment ten years in penitentiary,” is imperfect in the expression of the subject of the punishment to be inflicted. Quere, whether the judgment should be reversed if this were the only error.

¶8The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.

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