Johnson v. State

Decided December 15, 1886

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1886-12-15

From the Circuit Court of Cleburne, The record does not show the name of the presiding judge. , The defendant in this case, Marcus Johnson, was indicted lor the larceny of a barrel of flour, the personal property of Thomas E. Luke ; and the indictment also contained counts for receiving and concealing the barrel of flour, knowing that it had been stolen.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1886-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently March 2007

21 state decisions

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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SOMERVLLE, J.

¶1— The plea of former jeopardy or acquittal, under whichever head it may be classed, was fatally defective, and the demurrer to it was properly sustained.

¶2The affidavit and warrant, under which the appellant was arrested by the justice of the peace, and under which the pi'oceedings before him occurred, alleged no probable cause to believe that the defendant was guilty of the offense charged. The constitution prohibits the issue of any warrant to seize or arrest any person, “ without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation.”' — -Const. 1875, Art. 1, § 6; Code, 1876, §§ 4650, 4651. For this reason, the process was void, and the proceedings did not put the defendant in jeopardy. He was entitled at any time to his discharge under the writ of habeas corpus, on petition to the proper tribunal.

¶3There are some other objections to the sufficiency of the plea, which need not be considered.

¶4Affirmed.