16 Ind. 335 | Ind. | 1861
Information against the appellant for public indecency. Motion to quash overruled: trial; conviction, and judgment.
The principal point relied upon for a reversal is, that there is no such offense. The facts charged do not constitute a criminal offense, unless they are made such by the words public indecency,” as used in 2 R. S. 1852, § 22, p. 433. The provision is as follows: “Every person who shall be guilty of notorious lewdness, or other public indecency, upon conviction shall be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars, and imprisoned not exceeding three months.”
Another statute enacts, that “crimes and misdemeanors shall be defined, and punishment therefor fixed, by statutes of this State, and not otherwise. 1 E. S. 1852, § 2, p. 352. ■ In the case of Hackney v. The State, 8 Ind. 494, which was a prosecution for a nuisance, it was held that unless the Legislature had, by some general or particular definition, declared
Acts which in one place might be regarded as amounting to public indecency, might in another be considered harmless, and even proper. Perhaps the phrase “ notorious lewdness,” as used in the statute, is sufficiently descriptive of that offense, but that is not the offense charged here.
We are of opinion that for want of a proper definition, no act is made criminal by the terms “ public indecency,” employed in the statute.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded.