110 Ky. 233 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1901
Opinion op the court by
Reversing.
Appellant was indicted, tried, and convicted of the crime of uttering and publishing a forged instrument. His punishment was fixed at six years in the penitentiary, and he appeals. There was a demurrer to the indictment, which was overruled, and the sufficiency of the indictment is seriously questioned here. The instrument that was charged to have been forged and uttered and published by appellant is a letter purporting to have1 been written by Ellen Goodin, inviting the appellant to her house for a private conversation. . It reads: “Barbourville, Ky., July 27, 1900. Mr. John Golson, Sir, I want you to come heare some time when they is nobody hear. I have got something to tell you. It is about what you saw at Mother’s, an’ don’t fail to come. You can come some nite when they hant nobody hear. Ellen Goodin.” In our opinion, it is clear that such writing is not the subject of indictable forgery. Indeed, the attorney-general, in his brief, confesses -the insufficiency of the indictment. “To constitute an indictable forgery,” says Mr. Bishop (section 533, 2 Or. Law), “it is not alone sufficient that there be a writing, and that the writing- be false. It must also be such as, if true, would be of some legal efficacy, real or