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60 Ind. 302

State v. Van Valkenburg

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1878

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1878-05-15

<p>Cbiminal Law. — Supreme Court. — Appeal by Slate From Acquittal. — Where the defendant in a criminal prosecution is acquitted, the State can appeal to the Supreme Court for its opinion upon matters of law only, and not upon matters of fact.</p> <p>Same. — Assignment of Error. — Practice.—An assignment of error in such case, that the court erred in acquitting the defendant, presents no question for decision.</p> <p>Same. — The particular error of law intended to be reached by such appeal should be assigned as error.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1878-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently October 1986

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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Worden, J.

¶1The appellee was indicted for retailing intoxicating liquor without a license, and, upon trial by the court, was acquitted.

¶2The State appeals, and has assigned as error the finding of the court, that the defendant was not guilty as charged in the indictment.

¶3This assignment presents no question for our consideration.

¶4This court can not review the finding of the court below on questions of fact, where the finding is for the defendant, in a criminal case. The court could not grant the State a new trial in such ease, nor is there any provision in the statute authorizing this court to review and pronounce an opinion upon the facts. It is only upon matters of law, that the State may bring a case to this court for its opinion, where the defendant has been acquitted upon trial; nor can this court reverse the judgment upon an acquittal, though error may have intervened. 2 R. S. 1876, p. 405, sec. 119.

¶5If, during the progress of the trial, error has intervened, to the prejudice of the State, either in admitting or excluding evidence, or otherwise, the error should be assigned. Such error is not embraced in an assignment that the court erred in its finding upon the facts.

¶6Such error as is here assigned only goes to the correctness of the finding upon the evidence which was adduced and admitted.

¶7The appeal is dismissed.

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