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81 Mass. 187

Commonwealth v. Jackson

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided February 15, 1860

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1860-02-15

Indictment on St. 1845, c. 27, averring that the defendant, on the 23d of January 1859 at Lowell in the county of Middlesex, “… Held: by then and there forcing and thrusting the instrument aforesaid into the body and womb of one Elmira Callahan, the said Elmira Callahan then and there being pregnant with child, with intent thereby then and there to cause and procure the said Elmira Callahan prematurely to bring forth from her body the said child, with which she was…

Decided 1860-02-15

Dewey, J.

¶1The motion cannot be sustained. What would have been embraced within the technical offence of murder at the common law has, by force of the St. of 1845, c. 27, become a statute offence, distinguishable from murder and punishable by a milder punishment. It is quite sufficient to charge it as a statute offence, using appropriate terms to describe such offence. See Commonwealth v. Wood, 11 Gray, 85.

¶2It is no sufficient ground for arresting the judgment, that the offence is not charged to have been done “ feloniously.” The St. of 1852, c. 37, § 3, provides that no indictment shall be quashed or deemed invalid by reason of the omission of the words “ felonious ” or “ feloniously."

¶3The indictment is in other respects sufficient, and the order must be Motion in arrest overruled,.

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