Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

75 Ala. 40

Dover v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1883

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1883-12-15

Apx’kaR from Eibb Circuit Court. Tried before Hon. Jamics E Cobb.

Relies on Ex Parte Tobias Watkins · Ex parte Parks · Storey v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1883-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently April 1981

16 state decisions

5018831890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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 →

STONE, J.

¶1The present application is not distinguishable in principle from the question ruled on in Waller v. The State, 40 Ala. 325, 333. In that case it was contended that the prisoner ought to be discharged from custody, “ on the ground that, upon the verdict as originally returned into court, no sentence could have been pronounced, and that he was entitled to judgment of acquittal thereon.” This court replied, that it could not assentto such a proposition. And in 1 Bish. O. Proc. § 1016, it is said : “ If the jury bringin a defective verdict, it is in the power equally of the prisoner and the prosecuting attorney to have it set right; and suppose the prisoner chooses not to interfere, and suffers a defective verdict to be entered, as his interest would always prompt him to do, in preference to a verdict of guilty in due form, he, by thus failing to interfere, waives his objection to being put a second time in jeopardy for the same offense.”—1 Bish. Cr. Law, § 998; Com. v. Gibson, 2 Va. Ca. 70; Com. v. Smith, Ib. 327; Com. v. Scott, 5 Grat. 697 ; State v. Sutton, 4 Gill, 494; Wright v. The State, 5 Ind. 527; State v. Redman, 17 Iowa, 329; State v. Walters, 16 La. Ann. 400; State v. Spurgin, 1 McCord, 252.

¶2There was no want of jurisdiction of person, or of subject-matter in this case. The defect in the verdict may present a reversible error. Habeas corpus is not the remedy.—Ex parte Watkins, 3 Pet. 193; Ex parte Parks, 93 U. S. 18.

¶3The writ of habeas corpus is denied.

Pise Cueiam.

¶4Reversed and remanded, on authority of St. Clair v. Caldwell and Riddle, and authorities therein cited, 72 Ala. 527; Waller v. The State, 40 Ala. 325; Storey v. The State, 71 Ala. 329. The prisoner will remain in custody until discharged by due course of law.

/75/ala/40 · .json · Public domain