32 Tenn. 399 | Tenn. | 1852
delivered the opinion of the court.
The plaintiff in error was indicted in the circuit court of Maury, under the Act of 1835, eh. 58, § 1. That section provides, that “ If any person or persons, whatsoever, shall directly or indirectly tempt or persuade any slave or slaves to leave his, her, or their master, or mistress’ service, with an intent or design to convey him,
At the IVIay Term, 1852, the jury found a special verdict in the following words: “We find that Jesse, the boy mentioned in the indictment, is a slave, the property of the Duck river Slack "Water Navigation Company; that said slave, Jesse, formed the determination to run away, and escape permanently from his owners; that ’this determination on the part of the slave, Jesse, was formed without his being persuaded or enticed thereto by the defendant. The jury further find, that Jesse, the slave, communicated this determination to the defendant; and, thereupon, the defendant undertook to aid the said slave, Jesse, in procuring free papers, and applied to a white man for the purpose; when the plot was detected. All these facts took place in Maury county,” &c. Hie jury submitted the question of law to the court, and fixed the period of confinement in the penitentiary at three years, should the court be of opinion that, upon the foregoing facts’; the defendant was guilty of the offense charged in the indictment.
The court adjudged that the defendant was guilty, and pronounced judgment accordingly; from which he prosecuted an appeal in error to this court.
The question for our determination is, are the facts stated in this verdict sufficient to constitute the offense
And this is so, although the circumstances stated might be sufficient to warrant an inference or presumption of the existence of the matter omitted. The court can deduce no conclusion, by way of intendment or presumption, from the facts stated in the verdict, in order to supply the omission of a material fact not stated. And every matter essential to the judgment which the court is called upon to pronounce, not found by the jury in their verdict, must be taken not to exist. From these well established principles, it is clear that the judgment is wholly unsupported by tlie verdict.
The offense defined in the statute, consists in the tempting or persuading a slave to leave his master’s service, with the intent or design to convey said slave out of this State; or to deprive the true owner thereof. It is the existence of such criminal “intent or design,” that constitutes the act of tempting or persuading, an offense. It is the chief ingredient of the offense, and must be averred and proved in order to support a conviction under the statute.
In this verdict, there is no finding of the fact of such an intent or design. This was a singular omission on the part of the jury, as the acts of the defendant, as stated in the verdict, furnish at least ample
This question was not noticed in the discussion of the case at the bar, and, therefore, we will not at present commit ourselves upon it. In the present case, we simply hold that no judgment can be given against the prisoner, on the special verdict; and, consequently, the judgment of the circuit court will be reversed, and the prisoner be discharged from this prosecution, leaving open for future adjudication, if necessary, the question, whether or not this judgment will constitute a bar to another prosecution for the same identical offense.
Judgment reversed.