52 A.2d 113 | Md. | 1947
The appellant, on July 2, 1946, was indicted by the Grand Jury of Baltimore City for bastardy. The indictment states that the child was born on October 8, 1942. To this indictment the appellant filed a special plea of limitations to the effect that no action was commenced within two years after the birth of the child and no money has ever been paid for the child's support. Anno. Code, 1939, Art. 12, § 15. The State traversed this plea, stating that the prosecution was commenced by the filing of an affidavit by the prosecuting witness before a Justice of the Peace for Baltimore City on June 30, 1943, and the issuance of a warrant for the arrest of the applicant on that date; that the warrant was not executed because the appellant was at that time a member of the Armed Forces of the United States and was outside the jurisdiction of the State.
At the conclusion of the State's evidence at the trial, heard before the court without a jury, appellant stated there was no evidence introduced to show that the proceedings were commenced within two years after the birth of the child, nor was there any evidence that the prosecuting witness had ever received any payment from the defendant after the birth of the child. The State's Attorney replied that there was filed in the case with the indictment, the original papers, namely, the oath of the prosecuting witness and the statement by the prosecuting witness made before the magistrate on June 30, 1943, and the warrant issued on that date; and that this commenced the prosecution within the statutory period of two years after the birth of the child. The State's Attorney offered in evidence these original papers, they were admitted over objection, the appellant was found guilty and sentenced to two years in the Maryland House of Correction, from which sentence and judgment the appeal was taken.
Under the bastardy statute, Article 12 of the Annotated Code, a proceeding may be started before any Justice of the Peace upon written information given him under oath by a woman, accusing any person of being the *169
father of her illegitimate child. The Justice then issues a warrant and upon the appearance of the accused person, the Justice passes an order putting him under bond to appear at court at a time after the birth of the child. The statute provides (Sec. 3), "immediately upon passage of said order, said Justice of the Peace shall transmit the original papers and a transcript of the proceedings had before him" to the court. It is provided by Section 4 that at the hearing before the Justice, he must take down and reduce to writing the testimony of the woman making the complaint, together with her cross-examination, which testimony shall be signed and sworn to by her, and the Justice shall transmit the same with the original papers to the court and "such testimony shall be admitted in evidence at the trial of the accused person * * * if said accusing witness should die prior to the time of such trial." This section was passed by Chapter 163 of the Acts of 1912 and it was construed in the case of O'Brienv. State,
The State contends, first, that it is unnecessary to offer formally as evidence the original papers in a bastardy case because they are a part of the record of the Criminal Court and, second, that if it is necessary to offer them merely to prove the date when the prosecution began, they do not have to be proved by a certification of the record.
If the question is whether a suit was filed or a prosecution commenced within the period permitted by law, it is, of course, permissible to look at the record of the case, to see the date of filing the suit or of bringing the indictment. In the case ofLichtenberg v. Joyce,
The other contention of the State is that the original papers were not introduced into evidence in the Criminal Court for the purpose of proving their contents but merely to prove a collateral fact, that is the time when the prosecution began. But this so-called collateral fact is part of the contents of the papers.
In the case of Neff v. State,
The judgment and sentence will have to be reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.
Judgment and sentence reversed and case remanded for a newtrial.