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6 Mo. 455

Wheat v. State

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided August 15, 1840

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1840-08-15

The first ground upon which a new trial was asked and refused by the court was, “That the court erred in permii-ing the State to introduce new testimony, after the testimony on both sides had been closed.” Decisions of Supreme Court, 1st semi-annual part, I83S. Mary (a slave) v. The State, page 71. Hamnel v. State, 2 semi-annual part 1839, p. 260. The indictment is bad, both for uncertainty and duplicity..

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1840-08-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently June 1919

1 federal appellate · 9 state decisions

4018401850186018701880189019001910decided

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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¶1Opinion of the Court by

Napton, Judge.

¶2The grand jury, for the county of Livingston, found an indictment against Martin Wheat, the appellant, for keeping a ferry without license. The indictment charged, that said Wheat on &c., at, &c. “did keep a ferry in the said county of Livingston, so as to demand and receive pay thereat* without a license,” and that the said Wheat, on, &c., at, áre. “did then and there demand and receive pay, to wit, twenty-five cents for his services as a ferryman, without a license,” &c. On the trial, and after both parties had declared they were through with their testimony, the court permitted the State to introduce a witness to prove that the defendant had no license. This was objected to by defendant.

¶3The jury found the defendant guilty, and the judgment was given according thereto, and this judgment is sought to be reversed upon two grounds.

¶4First, Because the court allowed the State to introduce the additional testimony after both counsel had declared they were through. On this point I apprehend, no objection can be taken, that would be available here, inasmuch as the witness introduced, was for the purpose of proving, a fact which the State was clearly not under any obligation to establish. It devolved upon the defendant to show his license.

¶5Second, The indictment is objected to, and I think it is substantially defective. It does not specify on what stream or river, the ferry was kept; and as there may be several water courses in Livingston county, a conviction on this indictment would constitute no bar to another prosecution for the same offence. This want of certainty in the indictment is a fatal objection. The judgment is accordingly reversed.

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