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76 Mo. 323

State v. Hughes

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided October 15, 1882

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1882-10-15

<p>Pleading, Criminal: larceny. The description of the property need not he as particular in an indictment for an attempt to commit a ’arceny as in one for an .accomplished larceny.</p>

Relies on People v. Ah Ye

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1882-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently September 1980

5 state decisions

3018821890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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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Henry, J.

¶1The defendant was indicted in the criminal court of Lafayette county for an attempt to commit a larceny, which was alleged in the indictment as follows: “ That Oliver Hughes on the 25th day of June, 1882, at, etc., did unlawfully and feloniously attempt to steal, take and carry away in and from the dwelling house of one James McLean there situate, $5 in money, of the value of $5, and divers other goods, chattels and valuable things of the value of $100,” etc. A motion to quash the indictment was overruled, and on a trial defendant was found guilty as charged, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of three years, and from the judgment he has prosecuted this appeal.

¶2The only question before us relates to the sufficiency of the indictment, counsel for defendant contending that *324there is not a sufficiently specific description of the goods which, it is alleged, defendant attempted to steal, and that the description should be as particular in an indictment for an attempt to steal, as in one for an accomplished larceny. The authorities are the other way, and the position of defendant’s counsel is tersely answered by Pollock, C. B., in Reg. v. Johnson, Leigh & C. 489, in which he says: “Where there is only an attempt, it is not always possible to say what property the would-be thief meant to steal.” Bishop on Crim. Proc., § 87; Comm. v. McDonald, 5 Cush. 365; People v. Ah Ye, 31 Cal. 451.

All concurring,

¶3the judgment is affirmed.

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